The Experiment
by Night-the-Dragon
Summary: Dragon/human hybrids, the first one being Roxas. Hopefully, Night and Roxas can defeat the forces of darkness threatening the world, and save all of their friends. AkuRoku, SoRiku, and Zemyx. Mpreg, a little lime, and slight swearing. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, I'm rewriting this story, so I hope you'll like this! I'm rewriting it, seeing as I had lost interest in writing this for quite a while. Now that I'm writing this again, I need to make some corrections and stuff, as well as edit it to my liking. I hope all of the people that added this story to their favorites still like it after the rewrite! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, and all of the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 1

It was a dark night, almost pitch black, as my best friend and I remained perched in the tree branches. The moon wasn't even out, and night clouds blocked out the stars. The only way there was any visibility for us was for us to tap into our abilities and use them to see at night. Similar to night vision, but not quite, it allowed us to see almost as if it were daytime.

We watched, performing recon before starting our mission for revenge. We had been waiting for this for a long time, revenge, that is. Especially against the ones who had made us the way we are today. Those foolish scientists had created my friend to be the way he is today, copying my abilities and power to give it to him.

Tonight, though, they would try to create an army using my DNA structure, and we couldn't let that happen. If it did, the world would be destroyed. My power, when given to someone, is very uncontrollable, and can go haywire when not handled properly.

Suddenly, a man's cry was sounded from inside the mansion we waited outside of. It was horrible, and the poor man sounded as though he was in agony. Eight seconds passed, and a roar followed. My blond friend and I glanced at each other, my silver eyes reflecting his deep blue, and jumped down from the tree, ready to break inside and destroy all evidence and future plans they have.

It was simply amazing that we hadn't been caught yet as we snuck through, keeping our senses at their highest. Occasionally, a few guards would pass, but as long as we stayed hidden in the shadows, they couldn't see us. The shadows could cloak us, making us invisible. Once they were out of sight, we continued on our way.

Soon enough, we found the lab entrance, and waited patiently outside of it, hidden, until a scientist ran out, panicking. A series of crashes followed his exit. He took off, and we slipped inside the lab. What we saw was horrifying.

A tall man with bright red hair that was spiked back was attempting to break out of the lab. He had bright green eyes with tattoos shaped like upside down teardrops underneath each one. He looked absolutely livid, though, and that was because he had just been changed. I noticed his eyes flickered black rather than silver like my own, and my friend and I looked at each other. I had a horrible feeling about who it was that they took the splice from.

We quickly took down the scientists and guards in the lab, and then turned our attention to the man. He let a feral snarl rip out from his throat as we slowly approached. Suddenly, he flared his long, slender wings, which were black. I flared my own silver dragon wings and hissed. Roxas, my best friend, flared his own silver wings, too, and growled. The man watched us, confusion reflecting in the depths of his eyes, but still kept his guard up. Roxas slowly approached him and tried to explain in a soothing tone.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you. We're here to help you get out of here," Roxas told him. The redheaded man shook his head furiously, trying to clear it, and his eyes flickered back to a bright emerald green before he passed out. Roxas caught him, and I quickly darted around the lab, trying to find the dragon that was used to change this man. Soon enough, I found him, and I gasped in horror; it was my own twin brother.

I unlocked the cage he was in using my claws and grabbed him. Once he was on my back and secured there, I rejoined Roxas. We nodded to each other, and ran out of the lab, dodging the guard-infested hallways and fled outside. Once there, we spread our wings and flew off towards home.

Roxas carried the man, and once we were out of range, I pressed the detonator for the bomb we had planted in the lab. Soon enough, a huge explosion was heard behind us, and we didn't look back. All that was left of the old mansion was now a huge crater. Roxas and I looked at each other.

"What do we do with them, Night?" Roxas asked as we flew.

"We'll have to care for them, train the new hybrid, and ensure that this one wakes up," I replied, indicating my brother. "That is, unless they don't want to stay with us, which I doubt." Soon enough, dawn started to come upon us, and we just barely made it to our home in the forest. When we reached it, we got our new companions comfortable in a bed and a nest, and they curled up on instinct.

I nodded to Roxas when he looked at me, and he darted off to grab some medicinal herbs. Once he returned, it was also with a bowl of water and some cloths. He brought everything to me, and I dipped a cloth into the bowl and started to clean the injuries the man had sustained during his fight. Once they were clean and bandaged, I turned my attention to my brother. I sighed heavily.

"Oh, Shadow. How did they catch you…?" I wondered aloud. Roxas turned his attention to me when I said that, tilting his sideways a bit.

"You know him?" he asked in surprise.

"Yeah, he's my brother," I murmured. Roxas stared at me, shocked, and I sighed. "It's a long story, but I'll explain since we have time until they wake up. Shadow is his name, and he's my older twin brother. He was the first born of us, and I came shortly after. We grew up the same, in the Dragon Realms, and were raised by our mother and our mentor who taught us how to fight and control our magic.

"Shadow and I agreed that he would be the leader of our clan, and I was left as his deputy. After a series of adventures over at least three centuries, we were finally able to settle down with peace in our lands. I told you how things came about for me to meet you, Roxas, and I'm assuming that Shadow must have had the same series of events happen to him to meet this guy over here." I indicated the redhead. "We'll have to find out more when they wake up, but for now, get some sleep, I know you need it after that sleepless night from our raid on their lab."

"Sure thing, Night. I'll see you later. Just wake me if they start to come to," Roxas replied. I nodded, and he left to curl up in his own bed. I sighed to myself again once Roxas's breathing evened out.

"Shadow, why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you try and find me?" I whispered, feeling frustrated. Half of the day passed, and Roxas woke up. He joined me where I was sitting near my brother, waiting for him and the man to wake up. I hadn't moved at all since Roxas had fallen asleep, and I was worried that they might be in a coma.

Silently, Roxas passed me a cloth soaked in water, and I gave my friend a grateful look as I squeezed some of the water into Shadow's jaws, letting the liquid run down his throat, and he swallowed without waking up. I repeated the action with the redhead, and the same thing happened. Roxas and I looked at each other, worried.

_'I hope we weren't too late…'_ he thought as we watched them. Yeah, we can read each other's thoughts, thanks to our close friendship bond and the fact that he has some of my powers. I'm the only one out of all the dragons from my home world that can initiate telepathic communication, though. Suddenly, they both started to stir at the same time.

I darted to Shadow's side as Roxas ran over to the redhead. The reason for this was that they started to panic as soon as they opened their eyes. They didn't know where they were, and of course they freaked out. Shadow snarled against me as I pinned him down, and Roxas pinned the redhead down with all four limbs and his tail. Yes, Roxas has a tail. It'll be explained soon.

"Shadow!" I yelled over his snarls. "Shadow, it's me, Night! Your brother! You're safe, and you're in my home with my friend!" Once he heard that, he calmed down, and I stepped off from him. Roxas, however, had to keep his still-struggling foe pinned.

"Night?" Shadow whispered in shock. I nodded, and he threw his arms around me in a tight embrace. "I'm so happy to see you again, brother."

"Same here," I told him. We looked to Roxas and the redhead, who was still struggling. Roxas still had him easily pinned, but the redhead's eyes had turned pitch black again, and his black wings emerged, struggling to be freed from underneath him. His black tail thrashed until Roxas used his own silver tail to trap it. Shadow rushed over and got the redhead's attention.

"Axel, AXEL! Stop struggling! They're friends, they'll help us!" he shouted over the man's snarls. Soon enough, he calmed down from Shadow's voice.

"…Shadow…?" he murmured, and groaned. I grabbed the bowl of water and held it to him as Roxas carefully released him. Once certain that he wouldn't throw us off, he walked over and joined me by my side. The redhead drank greedily from the bowl of water, quenching his thirst. When he finished, he asked my brother, "What happened?" Shadow looked to Roxas and me for guidance.

"Let's start off with where you are," I said. "And the introductions. My name is Night, and I'm Shadow's twin brother."

"And my name is Roxas," Roxas chimed in. "We're currently in the middle of the forest in Twilight Town. No one's found us here, and we plan on keeping it that way."

"But what happened?" the redhead pressed.

"You've become a human and dragon hybrid," I sighed. "Just like Roxas."

"What…?" he said, confused.

"Okay, first off, what's your name?" Roxas asked.

"It's Axel, got it memorized?" he smirked, a teasing note to his voice.

"Alright, Axel, I'm a human and dragon hybrid, too. Do you remember anything from before this?"

"Yeah, but only bits and pieces," he answered, looking down with his eyes closed in concentration. "I remember my life before I got caught by those scientists, but then all I remember is pain and agony. Poking and prodding, needles, monitors, and then everything blacked out."

"…Okay. Well, it sounds like they wanted to try again, seeing as they lost us," I sighed. I looked at Shadow. "Were you bonded to Axel like I am to Roxas before they caught you?"

"Yeah, it was the same set of dreams and everything. I found Axel when he was little, and took care of him. I wasn't prepared for when scientists caught us, though," he admitted, lowering his head.

"Don't worry about it. They caught Roxas and me the same way, and learned that our kind is weak to iron," I explained. "They copied all of my abilities and powers and gave them to Roxas, creating his hybrid self." Axel looked stunned.

"It explains why you're the way you are now. You get Shadow's black eyes, tail, and wings, plus all of his abilities to control the elements. Your eyes will only change into pure black when you access your dragon powers or when you lose control of yourself, like you did when you were changed. The main reason you lost control when you were changed, though, is because you were confused and hurting."

"I would know," Roxas murmured, and turned his deep sapphire eyes to Axel's bright emerald ones. "I can completely empathize, seeing as I went through it as well. It's horrible, to not know what's going on. Whenever you wanna talk about it, let me know."

"Thanks, I might take you up on that sometime," Axel replied. I stood when I noticed the sun was setting, and my stomach growled.

"Well, Roxas and I should probably go hunting. Wanna join us?" I offered. Axel looked perplexed, but Shadow looked eager.

"Thanks, I haven't had fresh meat in ages, it feels like," Shadow said gratefully.

"But, I can't hunt without weapons," Axel protested, looking confused still, and Roxas chuckled.

"I'll show you, it's easy, and you'll enjoy it, trust me," he told the redhead.

"All right, show me how to hunt with my bare hands, then," he said easily.

A/N: I hope you like this edited version, and I'm gonna keep on going! R&R, peeps!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Here's chapter 2! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 2

We left for the forest outside of our tree home, and Axel looked unsettled when he saw how high up we were; our home resided in the high branches, possibly 70-80 feet above the ground. I opened my wings and glided down to the forest floor below, and Roxas spread his own wide, slender, silver wings and glided to a branch about 10 feet down from our home. He looked at Axel while easily balancing on the branch and called out to him.

"Axel, all you do is concentrate on your wings. It's easy! It'll take some practice, but you'll get the hang of it," Roxas called to him. Poor Axel still looked uncertain, so Roxas spread his wings again and flew over to Axel. "Well, here's your first problem: you need to have slits in your shirt for your wings to open, or no shirt at all, so choose."

The redhead remained silent, but flushed when Roxas said the 'no shirt' thing. The blonde decided to cut slits in his shirt for him. Axel looked at his now freed wings in awe as they spread. Shadow gazed at them in shock, and I chuckled softly to myself. I didn't forget the feeling of shock I had felt when I saw Roxas's wings the first time, either.

They were just a larger version of my own, and Axel's appeared to just be larger versions of Shadow's. Once the slits were made in his shirt, Axel flapped his wings slightly, letting a gust of wind rush forward. Roxas laughed and demonstrated to his new friend how to fly, and soon the redhead got the hang of it. When they were ready, the pair joined Shadow and me quickly.

"Sooo…What's our target prey today?" my brother asked. I laughed at him and he gave me a bewildered look, as if I were crazy. Once I sobered up, I explained.

"There is none. We just catch what we find, and eat that. Same for fruit; just find and save for home later," I told him. "We've done that since we broke out and lived here."

"Um, okay…" Shadow replied, seeming puzzled still. I sighed.

"Look, there's not enough of one prey in the forest to pick and choose, especially during winter, so we can't have a target prey," I added. He got it then, and Roxas led Axel off to search for prey. Shadow and I trailed after, watching as the pair talked quietly.

Soon enough, we came across a small herd of deer: one buck, two does, and a fawn. Roxas spoke to Axel in hushed tones, and indicated for us to watch him. He steadied himself, allowing himself to change into his dragon form. With a small glow of light from his body, he turned into a pale silver armored dragon with sapphire eyes that had fang-shaped pupils.

As he crept closer, he was almost silent except for the barely noticeable sound of his claws brushing the leaves of the forest floor. He crouched and shifted his hind legs back and forth. Soon enough, he pounced, and in a flurry of speed, Roxas had killed all four deer. Axel gawked with Shadow at his speed, and I snickered at their expressions. He changed back and walked over to us without a mark or stain on him.

"And that's how it's done," Roxas said simply, and laughed.

"How do you do that?" Axel asked after he'd recovered from his surprise.

"I'll show you tomorrow. Besides, we need to get this back home before it's either stolen or loses its warmth, neither of which we want," he replied. He nodded to me, and I collected some of the kill while my partner picked up the rest.

We made our way back home, and flew back up without difficulty. Once inside, we started a small fire and began to eat. Roxas did the honors of lighting it, breathing a small flame onto our fire pit which was lined with fresh wood. Shadow and I tore into the fresh meat while Axel watched. Roxas brought some pears back after he went inside, and Axel grabbed one.

"You know, you can eat the meat raw now, it won't kill you," Roxas told him. Axel looked at him in surprise, and he chuckled. "Trust me. It'll honestly taste better that way." Axel swallowed nervously as Roxas handed him a leg from a deer.

He sniffed it, and then bit into it with ease, like it was made of butter. Well, that's what happens when you become a dragon/human hybrid. You gain the muscle and jaw strength, as well as the razor-sharp teeth. He chewed for a few seconds, and then looked at the deer leg like it was the most amazing thing in the world. We all laughed at his expression.

"Wait until you taste mountain lion or wolf," I told him. "That's even better since they're both predators, unless we're hunting, in which case they're considered prey for us."

"Um, okay…?" he said, looking doubtful.

"Have we steered you wrong yet?" Roxas asked.

"No, but—" he tried to protest.

"Well, don't worry then! I've done this all before, so I'll keep you in line and everything," Roxas assured him. Axel looked at him, surprised. We all ate in silence afterwards, and soon enough, it was time for bed. As the other two went back inside, I got Roxas's attention and spoke to him telepathically. _You like him, don't you?_

_Well, closer than friends, but not like that, Night, you know me, I'm not gay or anything,_ Roxas thought back. I could sense the denial in his mind.

_You're right, I do know you, but don't deny it, you like him, and you want him as your mate! _I teased. His eyes widened in shock, but then he hung his head.

_Okay, you're right, but I don't know how to tell him without telling him everything, including how those asses in the lab made me able to become pregnant…_ he thought in distress.

_Well, we don't entirely know if that's true, but just let things take their course, and I'm sure he'll love you back, even more than you'd expect, _I replied.

_All right, if you say so…I just hope he doesn't hate me when I tell him,_ he thought, sounding depressed in his mind.

_He won't, just don't tell him too soon. Wait for a few weeks, and when you feel that he seems to like you back in the way that you do, tell him then, unless it happens sooner,_ I told him easily._ Trust me, Shadow has a mate back home in the Dragon Realms and they never even had to say it, they just showed each other._

_All right, thanks Night, _he replied gratefully. I nodded, happy to be of assistance. And with that, we left for the den room, where Axel and Shadow were waiting for us.

"What was that all about?" Axel asked curiously. Roxas's face flushed slightly as I answered.

"Just some private matters," I replied easily. Roxas climbed into his own bed, and I added, "Roxas, you'll have to share your bed with Axel, seeing as we don't have a spare. I'll share with Shadow, no problem."

Roxas turned red with embarrassment at my statement while Axel shyly crawled into the bed with him. Shadow was already curled up in my nest which was just big enough for the pair of us, but I would have to make him his own. After all, I need my space.

Now why I wouldn't make another bed for Axel to have as his own is because it would be too heavy for the tree house, and I wanted the pair to bond. Having them sleep in the same bed was a good way to do just that. I sighed with content as I curled up next to Shadow, burrowing my nose into my tail. Soon enough, sleep caught up with me, and I fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Chapter 3 is finally here! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 3

The next morning, I woke to the sight of soft morning sunlight shining through the window in our home. I raised my head and looked about, yawning hugely. As I looked around the den room, I saw Axel had Roxas in his arms on the bed under the covers, and both boys looked content. I smiled softly, and looked down at my brother beside me; he was still asleep.

Gently nudging him awake, I pointed out the pair in the bed to him. Shadow looked at them, but when he looked back at me, his expression was nervous. I sighed and spoke to him telepathically.

_What's wrong? They're happy like that,_ I told him.

_It's just that even though Axel is gay, he's been rejected a lot before this change, and I think he'll be scared for the same thing to happen again, _he replied.

_I highly doubt Roxas will reject him,_ I assured my twin. _He shared with me last night that he likes Axel more than friends, but he doesn't know how Axel will react._

_Um, okay then. I just hope that Axel will accept him like that, _Shadow thought back nervously.

_Are you kidding? Look at how content they look! _I pointed out validly. _Roxas is a good kid. He's only 16 physically, and even though he's actually 18, he's smart for his age. I feel it's from his experiences in the lab, and from the change. Don't worry; they'll be perfect for each other._

_All right, I'll try not to, but I can't make any guarantees, _he tried to promise me. I shook my head and rolled my eyes at him, slightly disappointed in my brother's faith.

"Let's get them up," I suggested aloud, and we gently woke them up, and while Roxas seemed happy to be in Axel's arms, when Axel woke up and realized what he was doing, he seemed startled. Shadow chuckled softly, and we got the pair to separate for a bite to eat. I had saved some of the meat from last night as well as some fruit, so I pulled out a few apples and the meat. We ate in peace, and while we ate, Axel asked what we would be doing today.

"Well, since there's only Roxas and I to teach you, we'll be doing some training on your new powers and magic," I replied. "You need to learn how to control your elements, strength, and how to shape-shift. Shape-shifting is very important if you're going to be able to interact in the city. I know that the lab techs put out a warning for Roxas and me once we broke free, and they might have done the same with you both. It's all for our own protection and safety. Roxas can train you, and I'll step in as I see fit."

"All right, thank you," the redhead murmured. Then he snapped his head up. "What about others? They can't have done this to just us."

"Well, that's how we found you the other night," Roxas explained. "We were originally just going to destroy the lab, but when we found you, we knew we wouldn't be any better than those sick bastards if we just left you both to die. Besides, I know Night; he wouldn't leave his kind to die, let alone his own twin brother. Also, we eavesdropped as much as we could before we broke free, and heard about the lab you were in. Once we were free, we planned on destroying all of their labs. There's more than just the two we destroyed, though. We know of five others, but that's it."

"What if some of the others back home had some of those dreams?" Shadow asked me. "They could be in trouble!"

"That's why we want to stop them, before it's too late. We also heard about them trying to create an army using our genetics to make a mass amount of dragon and human hybrids," I replied. "I'm just worried about the others right now, but we'll see about that when it comes down to it. First off, we need to train Axel with his magic and such."

"Agreed," Shadow said easily. Once we finished eating, we flew down to the forest floor and left for a small clearing to train Axel in. I put up a protective spell to prevent damage to the forest so we weren't discovered, and Axel settled himself next to Roxas. Once the spell was up, the blonde began to train his new friend.

"All right Axel, first off, you need to learn how to breathe fire," Roxas told him. "It's the most basic piece of magic you'll have, and all dragons need to be able to use it. It's also your best ally in a fight, unless there's water involved, of course."

"Okay, so how do I use it?" Axel asked.

"Well, first off, do you feel the heat in your heart?" Roxas asked. Axel looked confused but nodded. "That's your internal flame, and it provides your body heat and flames. Just reach into your heart and concentrate. Once you feel you've accessed it, exhale." Axel closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. After a few seconds, he exhaled sharply, opening his eyes and letting out a small jet of deep red flames. He looked startled from it, and then grinned.

"Awesome! I've always been a pyro, but now I can breathe fire and not need a lighter!" he crowed eagerly. Roxas laughed at him, making the redhead pout slightly.

"Perfect! I'm sure you'll have better control over fire than anyone," he praised. "Now, do you think you can contain it once you breathe it? As in, form it into a ball?"

Axel's face paled even more than the already pale color it was, so he was pretty nervous. He closed his eyes again and concentrated, and then when he breathed out the fire, he instinctually tried to hold out his hands to make it into a ball, but instead, it formed a slight star shape, and then dissipated into smoke.

"Awww…" he groaned, disappointed. Roxas proceeded to show him how it was done, and Axel tried to copy, this time succeeding. He cheered when he got it right, and Shadow and I praised him. Roxas glanced back at me, a question in his eyes.

"What's up, Roxas?" I asked.

"I want to see if Axel can tap into his true dragon form," he said. I pondered it; it would be much easier if he could shape-shift this early, but it would also be dangerous the first time around. The more practice and the sooner it happened, the better. The redhead in question listened and watched our exchange in confusion.

"All right, go for it. I'll be ready to pin him if necessary," I answered. Roxas nodded eagerly, and Axel watched him in anticipation.

"Axel, I'm going to teach you how to shape-shift into your dragon form," Roxas declared to him. Axel nodded once, and Roxas explained to him how to do it. "Basically, you concentrate and look deep inside yourself. If shape-shifting into something you know what it looks like, then you just focus that image in your mind instead."

Axel closed his eyes and focused, and then in a small burst of flames, he changed into a black armored dragon with almost emerald green eyes that had fang-shaped pupils. He looked himself over, stunned. Roxas, also in his dragon form, laughed slightly and called out to him.

"Ready to see how fast you can run?" he challenged Axel. The aforementioned looked at him, surprised by this question. He tilted his head slightly sideways, puzzled.

"Your body is now ready for a super fast running session. In your human form, you're faster, stronger, and have heightened senses that surpass even a bloodhound. In dragon form, however, you're even faster, even more powerful, and have even stronger senses. We'll practice your running today, and see how far you can go. Don't worry if you can't keep up." Roxas smirked when he said this last part, and he turned and led the way, weaving through the forest.

Shadow and I started to follow, and Axel took off following us. We slowed down slightly from our run, allowing Axel to catch up to Roxas. He was running as fast as he could, that much I could tell, and his muscles were tight, as though they were screaming in protest. As he ran, he was able to catch up to Roxas, but I knew Roxas was just going easy on his friend. Soon enough, we stopped, and Axel sat back on his haunches, trying to catch his breath.

"Wow…How do…you guys…run like that?" he panted.

"Lots of practice and training," I said simply. "You're lucky Roxas slowed for you. I pushed him hard when I trained him, not stopping until he was about to collapse."

"Yeah, and even then you tried to push me," Roxas pointed out, but I laughed off the comment.

"Well, how about we go to the river and get a drink?" Shadow suggested. "I smell the water nearby, and I'm sure Axel needs to quench his thirst." The redhead looked confused at Shadow's last statement.

"How can you smell water?" he asked, perplexed.

"Easy, you just catch a whiff of it the first time, and it'll keep itself stored in your memory," I said. "Dragons never forget, unless something's really wrong. We have a vast amount of space in our minds for us to learn and remember when born, or in yours and Roxas's cases, created. You'll soon memorize every scent you smell."

"Okay, I think I understand," Axel said simply. I turned to Roxas.

"Lead the way, and teach Axel as well as I've taught you," I advised my blonde friend. He nodded determinedly, and then led the way to the river. We ran there, slowing down a bit for Axel. As we ran, I thought about how Axel's transformation signified that he would control fire. I knew that since he was now a hybrid of my brother, he would be able to control all elements, but it seemed that fire would be his best ally in a fight. I nodded slightly to myself as we ran.

Soon enough, we got to the river and I climbed down to the very edge of the water. I lapped up as much as I needed, and Shadow did the same. Roxas joined us shortly after a quick word with Axel, and the redhead clambered down, too. Once he started drinking, he got a sly look on his face. I froze for a split second, and then swiftly tackled and pinned him. I knew what he was going to do.

"What the hell?!" Axel snapped at me. Roxas and Shadow watched in confusion.

"He was going to shove you into the river, Roxas, as a joke," I explained as I stepped back from pinning him. I whipped my head back around to glare at Axel. "The current for the river here is very fast. If you had shoved him in, he might not have been able to climb out for a few miles." Axel immediately looked away, ashamed. Shadow growled at him, angry that his friend would attempt something such as that. Roxas just slowly approached and placed one clawed hand on Axel's shoulder. He flinched and looked at Roxas, expecting a scolding.

"Axel? It's okay, you didn't know," Roxas assured him. "I forgive you. Just don't do it again."

"All right…" Axel mumbled. "I'm sorry…"

"No worries, nothing bad happened, so it's all good," Roxas said easily. "Now come on, let's all go home; it's getting late." Sure enough, I looked at the sun, and it was almost dark. We left for home, Axel leaning against Roxas's shoulder tiredly. As they walked behind us, I glanced at Shadow and started a telepathic conversation with him.

_Just so you know, Roxas can become pregnant, _I thought to him. Shadow looked at me, startled.

_What? How? Males can't become pregnant!_ he thought in a panic.

_Well, the damn scientists changed that for him. They made it so he has that capability,_ I replied smoothly. _They changed a lot of thing with him; after all, he is the first human and dragon hybrid. They probably want to try and multiply the amount of them._

_I guess… _Shadow thought._ What about the others, though? What if some of them had those dreams and came here, but got captured as well?_

_That's why we're searching for all of the labs and helping anyone we find, unless it's a true abomination. If that's the case, we destroy it,_ I answered. I flicked my eyes over to look at my brother again, and noticed he looked panicked. I knew what he was thinking about, or rather, _who_. _I'm sure Kikoku's fine. If she's here, we'll find her. If she's in one of those labs, we'll save her._

_I hope she's okay… _he thought, looking depressed. Kikoku is Shadow's mate, and the pair had been practically inseparable ever since they became friends. I just hoped that our best friend, Denkou, was okay, too. I cared for Kikoku as a friend, but that was it. I had no mate for myself.

Soon enough, we got home, and Axel fell asleep in Roxas's bed as soon as he climbed in. Roxas smiled softly at the sight. I set to work building a second, larger nest for Shadow. I knew he moved a lot in his sleep, and so he would need the space. Once finished, I lined it with moss and rabbit pelts, and he climbed into it, thanking me quietly. I curled up in my own nest, yawning widely as Roxas curled up with Axel. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought to myself, _I hope things can stay peaceful…_

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the edit! R&R, peeps!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Chapter 4 be finally here! Man, I'm updating these so quickly because I prepped them beforehand. Hope you guys like it! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 4

It had been about a month and a half since Roxas and I had saved Shadow and Axel, and since then, Axel had progressed very well in his training. Speaking of progress, I found the pair of them kissing once. Just a small, chaste kiss, but still a kiss. It was proof that the pair would make great mates. I never said anything, but Roxas knew that I knew. I shared it with Shadow in private, and he was happy for his friend.

That dawn I woke up in a good mood, eager for the assault we were going to press on the next lab. We had trained Axel and Shadow enough to know what to expect in the lab's security. They swore to follow our orders completely, even if we told them to save their selves.

The lab we were going to attack was in a place called Radiant Garden, and there we were to invade, dig around and find what we could. If we found nothing, then we were to destroy the lab. If we found more hybrids, we were to recover them and then destroy the lab. I just hoped that we wouldn't find anything.

Anyway, once I woke, I began to prep our packs for the journey. It would take us a day to fly to Radiant Garden, seeing as we would need to stay in the clouds, and that would slow us down. It would be worth it, though, to not be spotted.

Once I finished prepping, I woke the others. As they woke up, I grabbed a dragon fruit for each of us and tossed one to each of them. I bit into mine, tasting the sweet and satisfying flavor of it. I almost moaned in satisfaction, it was that good. I hadn't eaten one since Roxas and my last expedition to the lab where we found Shadow and Axel.

As they finished eating, we grabbed our packs, spread our wings, and flew away. I led the way, Roxas close behind me, Axel on his right, and Shadow on his left. We hadn't said a word about the raid at all, but we were all thinking about it. We couldn't even speak as we flew, for fear of losing our confidence. I had a bad feeling about this, but I didn't voice it.

After a long period of flying, we took refuge in a cave of crystals in a place called Hollow Bastion. There was a lab here, too, but we needed to go for the Radiant Garden lab first, seeing as they were closer to succeeding in their plans. At least, this was what I had heard as I scrounged around the town in a mouse form once.

I performed recon usually, shape-shifting into different forms to pick up tidbits of information from various sources. They always were right. Anyway, we settled for the night in the cover of the crystals, Roxas and Axel in their dragon forms to make sure they were both fully prepared for the next day, and so they could easily hide if need be. We bade each other good night, and fell asleep.

The next dawn, Roxas and Axel got dressed in their human forms, Roxas dressed in a black trench coat, black combat boots, black t-shirt, and black jeans. He pulled his hood up, and I noticed Axel was dressed similarly. He pulled his hood up, too. I nodded in approval, knowing that no one would identify them that way. They still had slits in their trench coats and shirts, which was also good; they could still fly that way.

I motioned my head for them to follow me, and the others launched themselves airborne. I followed swiftly after them, and sped ahead, taking the lead. We flew into the city, staying hidden. We landed in an alley nearby the mansion where the lab was hidden, and it was quickly approaching sunrise. The lab techs and scientists would be here soon. Roxas hid me in his hood, and I curled up around his neck, staying motionless and invisible. Axel copied the action with Shadow.

We were only about one foot tall, so we were small. Shadow and me, I mean. Our hybrid friends swiftly began to climb the wall, using their well concealed claws to scale the vertical surface easily. Once on the roof, Shadow and I slipped into the vent as planned. We quickly made our way to the control room while Roxas and Axel waited, hidden, by the gate for us to let them in. They could only get in through the front door, seeing as they were both too big to sneak through the vent like us.

Shadow and I silently crept out of the vent and into the control room, snapping the guard's neck and removing his body. I jumped up into the chair and searched for the buttons to unlock the gate and open the doors. Once I found it, I flipped the switch, and our friends joined us shortly afterward.

"How did you find us so fast?" Shadow asked, impressed. Roxas gestured to Axel.

"Used your guys' scent," Axel said simply with a small smirk. We then searched the monitors in the control room for where the lab was at, and found the entrance. We made a silent trek through the hallways, changing paths as we saw guards. We soon found the lab entrance, and I punched in the security code to the door.

Before we had left the control room, I found a bunch of codes, and also disabled all of the alarms. I even snatched the keys to the lab cages. The door opened, and we slipped inside, only the overnight guard noticing the open door. Roxas quickly killed him with a swift snap of his neck.

We suddenly heard a soft groaning, and Shadow swiftly darted over to the source. Once we caught up with him, we found him with tears streaming down his face as he watched the dragon in the cage. I gasped in horror upon the sight; it was Shadow's mate, Kikoku. She's the emerald-armored dragon clan leader.

I swiftly yanked the keys out and unlocked the door, and Shadow darted in, pulling her out. As soon as she was out of the cage, her eyes started to flicker open. Shadow embraced her, holding her tightly to his chest. She started to wake up more, and almost panicked when she noticed she was being held, but relaxed when she realized who it was.

"Shadow…?" she breathed. "Is it really you?"

"Yes, it's really me," he cried, tears streaming down his face still. I walked over and got her attention.

"Hey, Kikoku, it's good to see you again," I told her. "I just wish it was under better circumstances."

"It's good to see you, too, Night," she whispered, her normally beautiful voice hoarse. Suddenly, she looked around, seeming worried. "Where's Sora?"

"Who's Sora?" I asked. "Is he your human you bonded with?" She nodded, and I looked at Roxas and Axel. "Guys, you need to find him. Just search for a boy."

"He has spiky brown hair," Kikoku murmured before they left. "He shouldn't be too hard to find." She looked at Shadow and me. "How did you find me?"

"Well, it's a long story, and we don't have time here right now," I said quickly. "We're taking you back to our home, and we're bringing Sora, too. We'll explain later, but for now, we're going to have to wait until Roxas and Axel come back."

"Who are they, anyway?" she asked. I set up the bomb system from my pack as she spoke.

"Still a long story, and they're both part of it. Don't worry, you'll hear it soon enough," Shadow told her. Suddenly, there was a series of shouts, followed by snarls and roars. A burst of flames came from nearby, and then Roxas and Axel ran over to us, a boy about Roxas's size with spiked brown hair in Axel's arms.

When they had joined us, I had everyone touch Shadow and me. Once they all had contact, Shadow and I used our teleport ability to return home. We disappeared from the scientists' sight, and reappeared in our tree home. When we arrived in the tree house, I pressed the trigger for the bomb, hoping it worked from this distance.

"Thank God," Roxas sighed, slumping down into a sitting position against a near wall. Axel set Sora down on a pile of skins I had set up just in case this happened. I approached the brunette and checked him over; he was out cold.

Kikoku seemed to have passed out during the teleport, and Shadow was checking her over, too. We looked at each other and nodded, knowing to help them. Axel and Roxas quickly took off, getting our medical supplies and a couple bowls of water. When they returned, Shadow and I set to work, cleaning their wounds from the lab tests and possible abuse they suffered, plus bandaging them after treating them with antibiotic ointment.

We all waited through the night for the pair to awaken, and poor Shadow seemed hell bent on making sure Kikoku was fine. Once morning came, though, Kikoku woke up first. She was trying to sit up, and Shadow gently pushed her back down.

"Kikoku, don't try to sit up yet. We don't know what all they did to you," he warned her.

"Shadow, I can heal myself, remember?" she reminded him. She let her body glow a light, minty green color, and the leaves in her armor glowed with it. Once the light died down, she sat up easily and stretched, not a slight bit of hesitation.

Suddenly, she looked like she remembered something. "Sora!" she gasped. She darted over to the brunette, looking him over carefully. When she finished, she looked at me and nodded in approval. "Night, you've gotten better at dressing wounds and healing them. I'm proud of you." I looked down, embarrassed.

"Well, it's mostly thanks to Roxas," I admitted, looking at him. "He helped me out a lot."

"Well, you're lucky to have him," she replied. "I want to hear the story, but I know Sora will need to hear it, too. I can wait for him to wake up." And so we did, until noon came, and Roxas and Axel were sleeping against each other as they waited, while Shadow lay with Kikoku.

As soon as it was noon, I heard a small groan from Sora, and I quickly got Kikoku's attention. She darted over to him, making sure she was the first one he saw when he woke. His eyes opened, and they were the same kind of blue as Roxas's. Roxas carefully approached with Axel once I woke them, and they watched Sora as he started to come to.

As soon as he was awake, though, before I could react, Kikoku pinned him to the floor as his emerald green tail and wings thrashed under his body. His eyes soon turned a piercing pure green, dimmer than Axel's, but colder as well. As he thrashed, Kikoku called out to him in a soothing tone.

"Sora! Sora, it's me! Kikoku!" she cried out to him as he snarled. Suddenly, when she said her name, he began to calm down, and his eyes turned back to human, blue ones. His wings stopped moving, as did his tail. He stared at Kikoku, his expression bewildered.

"Kikoku?" he said, sounding panicked. "What's going on? Where are we?"

"We're in a forest home, away from the lab. We're with friends, so don't worry," she told him softly. Jeez, no wonder Shadow loves her. She has the most soothing voice in the world. I coughed slightly, getting her and Sora's attention. "Oh, Sora, this is Night. He's one of the ones that saved us."

"Th-thank you," Sora stammered. I nodded, smiling warmly. Shadow joined us, and Kikoku introduced him, too.

"Sora, this is my mate, Shadow. He helped, too," she told him. He stammered thanks again, and I motioned for Roxas and Axel to come over. When they joined us, Sora's eyes widened when he saw their wings and tails. "Sora, these two are Roxas and Axel. Roxas is Night's friend, and Axel is Shadow's. They both helped in saving us, too." He still looked nervous, but that was nothing when he noticed his own tail and wings. He shrieked in horror, and we all winced at the pitch.

"What happened to me?!" he yelped. "Why do I have a tail and wings?!"

"We're actually going to explain that to you both," I told him. "Roxas, come on over." Once Roxas joined me, I had everyone sit around the fire pit out on the makeshift balcony. When everyone was settled, I began my explanation.

"Sora, you've been changed into a dragon and human hybrid." He gasped in shock and horror, but I held up my hand to keep him from speaking. "Roxas and Axel are each one as well. The scientists that captured you and Kikoku seem to be experimenting to create an army of human and dragon hybrids, and Roxas and I were the first ones.

"We found Axel and Shadow next, and now we've found you and Kikoku. I know there have got to be more being made, I just don't like the idea of our friends and family being tested on and used. Basically, when they changed you, you now have all of Kikoku's capabilities.

"You can now control nature and earth, have greater running speed than any of us, and have a vast knowledge of herbal medicine. At least, I know the herb part will come in time. Kikoku can teach you all she knows.

"But, anyway, with the scientists, Roxas and I planned to destroy all of the labs and all evidence of our existence in their labs once we broke out. And that's how we found Axel, Shadow, Kikoku, and you. We actually found Axel and Shadow about a month and a half ago, and I suspect that's how long it may take to train you."

"Okay…okay…I think I get it…" Sora said slowly, trying to comprehend the situation. "What do you mean by training, though?"

"I mean as in you'll have to be taught by Kikoku how to control your elements," I answered. "She knows her elements the best, so she can teach you the best. Also, you have a dragon form now, too. So you can turn into a dragon like us at will once Roxas and Axel teach you how to." The aforementioned pair looked up as their names were said and nodded reassuringly at Sora. "I'm sorry that so much has happened to you, and in such a short amount of time, too…"

"No, no, it's okay," Sora interrupted. "I will admit it's a lot, but I'm worried about my boyfriend, Riku. He has a dragon friend, too, named Denkou."

"What?!" I yelped, losing my calm exposure when I heard that. "Denkou? Are you sure that's his name?"

"Y…yeah, why?" Sora stuttered. Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose.

"He's Night and my best friend," my twin explained, and Sora paled upon hearing this.

""Well then, all the more reason to hurry and help him!" he said, looking determined. He started to get up, but Kikoku quickly and gently pulled him back down.

""Sora, we don't know which lab he's at, and even then, we still need to train you," she told him. He looked really upset at that point, almost like he was about to cry, but then Kikoku nuzzled his side in a reassuring way. "We'll find him, don't worry."

"Exactly," I said after I had calmed down. "Riku is important to you, and Denkou is important to us, so we'll work as fast as we can to find him. But for now, we all need to sleep. Kikoku, you and Shadow can share a nest. Sora, I'm sorry, but until I can make another tree house, you'll have to sleep on the pelts until I furnish it. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. As long as it's comfortable, that's all that matters," he said, sounding bright and chipper. And with that, we all went to our respective places, falling asleep quickly after bidding each other good night.

A/N: Finally, that edit is done! Wish me luck, chapter 7 isn't in my files, so I have to completely rewrite it, which sucks big time…Oh well! R&R, peeps!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Chapter 5! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 5

The next morning came, and I got up quietly from my nest, and I silently slipped past Roxas and Axel's bed, where I noticed the pair holding one another tightly, as though they never wanted to let the other go. As I passed by them, I heard them murmur the other's name in their sleep. I watched for a moment, happy that they had each other.

I sighed happily as I crept over to Shadow and Kikoku, gently waking them. Once they were awake, we each woke our respective friend, and met by the entrance. With some coaxing, we were able to teach Sora how to fly using his new wings.

I let him know that he could shape-shift, too, and he looked delighted by this tidbit of information. When I asked him why, he just shrugged. I shook off the feeling that it was something silly and led them through the forest until we got to the clearing. We got to the clearing, and I set up the spell to protect it from damage. Upon finishing, I turned to Kikoku and Sora.

"All right, Kikoku, you're gonna have to teach Sora how to control nature, earth, and breathe fire," I told her. "And you'll have to teach him how to use medicinal herbs."

"Shouldn't be too difficult," she said simply, and cracked her knuckles. She turned to Sora. "Okay, Sora, I want you to focus on the heat coming from your heart. Do you feel it?" He nodded. "Good. Now, focus on that heat, inhale, and then exhale sharply. You should breathe flames."

He did as she instructed, and exhaled sharply, causing a burst of emerald flames to come from his mouth. Sora looked almost startled, and then looked to Kikoku for approval. "Very good! We'll practice more, and soon you should be able to do it instinctively."

"Cool!" Sora squealed. Roxas and Axel chuckled softly, remembering their first times breathing fire. I motioned for the pair to join them.

"Okay, Sora, we're gonna try seeing if you can access your dragon form," I told him. "Roxas and Axel will explain and show you how it's done." Poor Sora looked scared and excited at the same time. I sighed and Roxas proceeded to explain.

"Basically, you just focus your energy, and feel it course through you," he said. "This is the only form you can shape-shift into, though, seeing as you're not quite like us." Sora looked at them, confused. "What I mean is, Kikoku's specialty is her running speed, not shape-shifting. That's Night and Shadow's specialty, and so Axel and I have it. You have Kikoku's high running speed."

"Oh, okay. So, Kikoku and I can run faster than you guys?" Sora asked in clarification. Roxas nodded. "Awesome! I can't wait to show Riku!" Axel chuckled.

"Great enthusiasm, kid," he laughed. "But I'm sure that Riku will have his own abilities to show you, too."

"Awww, way to be a downer, Axel!" Sora whined. We all laughed, and Roxas and Axel changed into their dragon forms with small bursts of light and flames. Sora stared at them, amazed. He focused, and closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he glowed green, and in a burst of leaves, he turned into a green armored dragon with bright blue eyes that had fang-shaped pupils. He looked at himself and gasped, turning in circles to better examine himself.

"WOW! I did it!" he cried out excitedly. "…But, what's the importance of having it?"

"It's your most powerful form," Roxas explained. "In this form, you have better control over your element or elements. Also, you have better speed in this form, in your case. Now, we're gonna run and increase your endurance. We're running to the river on the opposite side of the forest, and we'll stop there to drink. I won't be surprised if you can keep up." We all looked at Axel and laughed, except for Sora and Kikoku, who just looked confused.

"What are you laughing about?" Kikoku asked, sounding slightly worried about our sanity. When I finally sobered up, I explained.

"Axel had a hard time increasing his endurance to run," I said. "First running session, he was breathless by the time we got to the river."

"And you still poke fun at me for it," Axel grumbled. Roxas chuckled and nuzzled him, both of them still in their dragon forms, of course.

"So, are you two mates or something?" Kikoku asked them, and I cheered on the inside. I was dying to ask that question, but didn't want to get them mad at me. The pair looked at her, alarmed, and I noticed a faint dusting of pink of Roxas's cheeks.

"Yeah, I guess…" they mumbled. Kikoku placed her hands on her hips.

"Well, either you are or not. Are you?" she pressed, her lighter green eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yeah, we are," Roxas said softly, his cheeks a darker red now. "Sorry, no one had asked us that yet."

"It's okay. I just don't like the idea of the whole, 'friends with benefits' thing," she explained. She looked to Sora and added, "I'm sure you and Riku will be mates, too, Sora."

"That's also why I'm making a separate tree house," I chimed in. "Sora and Riku will need a place to live in once we save Riku and Denkou. I should have it finished by tomorrow."

"That fast?" Sora yelped. I gave him a weird look.

"Well, yeah. Since Shadow and I can control all elements, then I can use nature and earth to create a new tree house. It will be nearby our current one, but a bit smaller, since it'll just be you, Riku, and Denkou."

"Oh, okay…" Sora said, still seeming surprised by the progress I'd make on it. I started to leave for home, leaving the others behind.

"Hey, I'm gonna start on it now, get it made, hopefully I'll be done by tonight," I announced. "I'd love to stick around and see how training goes, but I know you'll all do great. Also, Kikoku, can you come with me? I think I may need just a bit of your help."

That last comment I made to make it not seem suspicious, but I needed to talk to Kikoku desperately about Sora. She nodded, and began to follow as the pair of us left for home, flying and weaving through the trees. I started to speak with her via telepathy.

_Kikoku, I know this may seem odd, but…_ I started.

_What?_ she asked.

_Well, did the scientists mention anything about making sure the hybrids can repopulate?_ I asked. She gave me a funny look, and I explained. _Basically, Roxas can become pregnant, and I want to verify and see if Sora can or not. The scientists changed some of Roxas's genetic structure, and I want to know if you know if Sora can or not. It's not a big deal if he can; I just need to know so there are no surprises later._

_I honestly wouldn't know, _she replied. _The only ways I can think of to find out is through Riku mating with him, or by checking his information at the lab, but you guys destroyed it, right?_

_Yeah, but I can still access it through the other labs' computers, _I thought._ I can still hack their network and find out when we get home. I stole a computer for us to be able to gather information on the labs, and it's proved quite handy. We'll find out later._

_Okay, sure thing,_ she told me. Soon enough, we got home, and I darted to my computer. Kikoku followed more slowly, and I was typing away. I hacked into the network of the lab in Hollow Bastion, and started to search for Sora's lab information. I soon dug it up and started to read through it. Eventually, I found what I was looking for: Sora's genetic makeup.

It read that he was capable of becoming pregnant, and that he was healthy enough for it, too. I shuddered at that. I wasn't sure, but what if they had forced him to mate with someone he didn't know? What if we hadn't saved Axel, and he was forced to mate with Sora? Kikoku gasped when she realized what I was thinking, and started to shiver.

"I know, it's awful," I murmured to her. She stopped shivering and looked at me.

"Can't you find out who's in the lab in Hollow Bastion now?" she asked. I looked at her, surprised.

"Yeah, yeah I can. Just give me a sec…" I told her, and started to type again. I was lucky they hadn't discovered I was in their network yet. As I typed, I thought about Denkou. He was Shadow and my best friend growing up, and we were all like brothers, that's how close we are. Soon enough, I found the files. I pulled them both up, and found Denkou, called Experiment #7, and Riku, called Experiment #8. I turned to Kikoku upon her gasp. "Is this him?"

"Yes, that's Riku…" she murmured. "Don't show this to Sora, he'll be very upset. Riku loves and cares about Sora like no other, and it would break his heart to see Riku in their files."

"Well, he's gonna have to come with us when we go to rescue him and Denkou, you realize that, right?"

"Yes, I know. I just don't know if he'll be able to take it so early on that Riku is being experimented on," she whispered. I quickly closed the files and exited the system, making sure my fire walls were up and all security was set before shutting down the computer. Once shut down, I turned and looked outside; it was nearly sunset.

The others would be back soon, so I quickly started to work on the tree house, setting up my magic and making the place look nice. I soon finished, with help from Kikoku, and the others arrived just as the sun finished setting.

"Wow, the place looks great, Night and Kikoku!" Sora said cheerfully as he landed in his human form.

"Well, it's also furnished, so you can move in tonight, if you're up for it," I told him. "If not, you're welcome to sleep on the skins again until we rescue Riku and Denkou."

"I'll stay on the skins for now. I don't want to be alone," he replied. "Wait, we're gonna rescue Riku and Denkou next? How did you find them?"

"That's another reason I had to bring Kikoku with me," I said. "I needed her to recognize Riku for me, and we found he's in the Hollow Bastion lab. I didn't want you to be upset when you saw him on screen. I have a computer, and I use it to hack into the labs' systems and networks to find out what the blueprints are to the places."

"Oh, okay. Is he in that bad of shape?" Sora asked.

"I don't want to worry you too much," I said firmly. "We'll speed up your training, and we should be able to save them by the end of the month at the earliest. I'm sorry, but you'll have to be patient."

"…All right, whatever it takes to save Riku!" he said determinedly. And with that, we all gathered around the fire, ate, talked about Sora's progress, and the plans for our assault. After eating, we all bid each other good night, and went to bed. I curled up thinking to myself, _Hopefully we won't be too late…_

A/N: Chapter 5 is complete! I hope you guys are liking the edits so far, 'cause I'm starting to get back in the swing of this~ R&R, peeps!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Chap-ee-tar 6! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 6

The next couple of weeks passed by quickly, and Sora had gained full control over his elements, speed, and dragon form. He also learned how to use herbal medicine quite quickly, too. Once the end of the month came, we packed our bags and got ready for the half a day journey to Hollow Bastion.

We rested up for the night, preparing ourselves mentally for what was to come, and when dawn came, we flew to our destination. We flew through the clouds, using them as cover so we wouldn't be seen. Soon enough, we arrived in Hollow Bastion as dusk set in. We landed in the crystal cavern to rest up, same as last time.

This time around, though, we were going to attack at night. And we were to recover Riku and Denkou, and set a bomb to destroy the lab. At least we were closer this time, and it wouldn't require us to teleport back home unless we became trapped.

Once it was completely dark, we set out for the castle where the lab was. The hybrids changed into their dragon forms, and we snuck about, slipping through the rubble from past battles and making our way to the castle.

When we got there, we all scaled the walls onto the roof, same as last time. We slid into the vent with me in the lead. I led the way to the control room, and Kikoku offered to kill the guard this time. I nodded, and she silently dropped to the floor, creeping up on him and biting his throat, severing his jugular and killing him immediately. It was a bit of a mess, but as long as he was dead, that was all that mattered.

We were swift in disposing of the body, and I slid into the control panel's seat, starting to type up a storm. I quickly unlocked all doors, including the ones to the lab, and the door to the safe where they kept the keys to the cages and the information on Riku and Denkou on paper.

Once that was done, I finished the job by disarming all of the security alarms. I gave the okay, and we swiftly snuck into the hall, locking the control room behind us. We made our way to the heart of the castle, where Roxas set up the bomb to detonate when the trigger was activated. After that, we hurried to the lab, where an increasing amount of screams were coming from. We all looked at each other in alarm, and Sora's face was pale with a sickly green tint to it.

"Hurry!" I hissed, and we dashed into the lab, hiding when we saw a silver haired young man attacking the guards and scientists. We leapt into the fray, aiding him and fending them off. Once they were all dead or at least knocked out, Sora changed into his human form and ran over to the silverette.

"Sora!" Kikoku cried out in a panic. She ran after him as he tried to calm the boy. The silverette had golden eyes, wings, and tail, and he snarled at Sora upon seeing him. Kikoku had to knock him out, and he crumpled into Sora's arms.

"Riku…" he whimpered as he held Riku. Kikoku looked at us, keeping her guard up.

"Where's Denkou?" she demanded, but since none of us knew, we all searched for him.

"Found him!" Shadow called, and we joined him, Sora still carrying Riku. I unlocked the cage, darted in, picked him up, and hefted him onto my back. I ran out, and we bolted for the lab exit. We barely made it out before the doors shut on us, and we broke out through the ceiling, Sora shielding Riku the whole time.

"We're almost home free, guys!" I yelled, and we flew as fast as we could to get out of range. As soon as we got out of range, I triggered the bomb, and it exploded in a burst of flames and light. All that remained was a smoldering crater. I heard Shadow cackle manically.

"We did it!" he cheered, and we all joined in, except for Sora, who kept glancing at Riku as we flew.

"Let's just get home and rest now, and then we'll celebrate later," I said. I held onto Denkou tight in my arms as we flew, Sora doing the same with Riku. We eventually made it back home by dawn, and when we landed, Sora immediately set to work on Riku, while I started to patch up Denkou. We already had bowls of water set out in case this happened, and we used them with cloths to clean their wounds from their suffering in the lab.

After we cleaned their wounds, Sora and I took turns using the healing ointment, and then covered their wounds with gauze and bandages. Once they were all patched up, Sora laid Riku in his bed he hadn't used yet, while I set Denkou up in his new nest. I noticed the others watching me, and I turned to them.

"You guys can all go to sleep, I'm sure you're exhausted," I told them, but they didn't move or speak. Finally, my brother spoke up.

"Night, I'm sure you need the most sleep, so go to bed, I'll keep an eye on them," he offered. I opened my mouth to protest, but he stopped me. "You've been working your ass off the past two weeks, and you need to rest. I'll wake you if Denkou or Riku wake up." I sighed, defeated.

"All right, I'll hold you to that," I agreed. "Thanks."

"No problem, little brother," he smirked, and I growled irritably at him.

"We're twins! Just because you were born first doesn't mean anything!" I snapped, and stormed off to bed in the neighboring tree house my nest was in. I curled up, my nose touching my tail, as I huffed angrily. Big brother my ass. Some brother he can be…I soon fell asleep, and it felt like only seconds later I was being shaken awake. I started to growl in protest, but it turned into a groan.

"What is it?" I grumbled, trying to go back to sleep.

"Denkou is waking up," Shadow told me. "The others are already in the tree house with him. Come on!"

"Awesome!" I said, waking up suddenly, and I dashed off to the tree house he was in. Shadow trailed after me, and we gathered around Denkou. He started to wake up, and his eyelids fluttered open, the lightning bolts in his topaz armor flickering back to life. He groaned, stretching, and looked around, a puzzled expression on his face. I approached him first. "Denkou?"

"Wha—" he started to say, but I hugged him tight, stopping him. "N-Night?" he stammered.

"In the flesh!" I laughed, releasing him. "I was so worried about you!"

"What happened…?" he asked curiously. Suddenly, he noticed Shadow and Kikoku. "What are you two doing here? And where am I?"

"It's a long story, one we'll have to share when Riku wakes up," Shadow told him. "And you're in your new home."

"What?" he whispered, stunned. "I don't understand. Where's Riku?"

"He's with Sora in their bed," Kikoku told him soothingly. "Try not to move too much. You're still injured from the lab."

"Um, okay…?" Denkou said, still bewildered by all of this. He perked his head up as he remembered something. "Kikoku, you said Sora's here, too. Is he okay?"

"Yes, but he's…changed. It's a good change, but nothing intentional," she replied. "We'll explain when he's awake."

"Sounds like he's about to," Roxas warned, and we all heard a small groan. Sora, in the bed, quickly backed away.

"Denkou, you need to pin him and calm him down, _now_!" I ordered my friend, and he quickly bolted over, pinning Riku as the silverette suddenly opened his now golden eyes. His topaz colored wings and tail thrashed as he snarled furiously, trying to escape.

"Riku! RIKU! Snap out of it! I don't know what's going on with you, but _stop_! You're safe!" Denkou bellowed at him over the snarls. After the word "safe" was said, Riku started to calm down, his eyes reverting to almost drop-dead gorgeous aquamarine ones. His wings and tail stilled, and he looked at Denkou, seeming nervous.

"Denkou? What happened?" he asked, sounding panicked. Sora appeared in his line of vision, and he gasped. Sora's wings were folded, but his emerald green tail was exposed from his jeans. All of the hybrids had slits in their shirts for their wings and holes in their pants for their tails. His eyes started to shimmer with unshed tears, and he struggled to get to the brunette. "Sora!"

"Riku! Oh my god, I'm so glad you're okay!" Sora whimpered as the pair embraced. Riku pulled back for a moment and looked at his lover, confused.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Riku replied. Sora carefully indicated his tail and wings that had gone unnoticed until now. Riku looked and gasped sharply. "What happened to me?"

"I think that it's a good time to explain what happened," I said. We all sat down in a sort of circle around the bed, and I launched into the explanation. "Riku, when you were captured and taken to the lab, you were changed into a human and dragon hybrid. They copied Denkou's genetic structure and fused it with yours. You now can do everything that Denkou can. You even have a dragon form.

"You're now part of our family. Roxas and I were the first to be experimented on, and the first to break free." I indicated my friend. "We saved Axel and Shadow next, and then Sora and Kikoku." I indicated Shadow and Axel when I said their names. "My name is Night, by the way, and I'm Shadow's twin brother. Anyway, we've been finding the labs in the different cities, and destroying them as well as saving any hybrids and their dragon partner at the same time. We want to stop this from happening, but it seems like every time we try, we're too late to stop the process."

"…Well, I'll help, then," Riku said, and glanced at Denkou, who nodded. "Or rather, _we'll_ help. I want to put an end to this before it's too late. Whatever it takes to stop even more people from being changed."

"Thank you, both of you," Roxas said, finally speaking. "You would have to help anyway, and training starts tomorrow. What happens now is that we'll decide on our next course of action, and then make a plan while Denkou trains you on how to control your lightning magic and your ability to read the stars.

"You have your choice on who will teach you on how to use your dragon form. You can choose from me, Axel, or Sora. I've helped teach them all, and Axel helped me teach Sora. Your dragon form will be your greatest ally in a fight, seeing as human skin isn't very…durable."

"Anything to help you guys. You saved us, and Sora and Kikoku, too," Riku said simply. "And I think I'll have Sora show me how to access my true dragon form. Thank you, though."

"No problem!" Axel said. "Anything to help our new friends! Or rather, new family members."

"Family…?" Riku repeated, sounding confused again. Shadow jumped in this time.

"Sure! We all take care of each other, look out for the other, and help each other!" he explained. "It's good we have you all here now, though, before things become too hard or rough."

"What do you mean?"

"What he means is, now that we've destroyed four of their eight labs, they'll be upping their security and trying to find us that much more," Kikoku told him.

"When Kikoku, Night, and I had searched for Sora's file and your guys' location, we had discovered they have eight labs in all. At least, that was what was recorded. There may be more, but we'll have to see," Shadow added.

"Looks like I'll be making more tree houses…" I muttered, and smirked slightly. "Ah, well. Whatever it takes to make everyone happy."

"All right, everyone, let's go to sleep. I, for one, am exhausted," Sora yawned, and we all laughed softly. The brunette snuggled up to his boyfriend, and Riku embraced him tightly, as though he felt the boy might vanish any second. Denkou curled up in his nest while the rest of us made our way back to the original tree house. I settled myself in my nest, Shadow and Kikoku in theirs, and Roxas and Axel in their bed. I curled up for the night, tucking myself up tightly, and fell asleep.

A/N: Woo hoo! Got chapter 6 done, and now to write 7 out again! Especially seeing as I no longer have it on file anymore…Whatevs! R&R, peeps!


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Okay, now that I'm starting chapter 7, things should make more sense now. I realized after a while that I had actually posted chapter 7 of Night's View instead of Chapter 7 of The Experiment, and I felt pretty stupid after that. Also, just a quick side note, I apologize in advance for this being a short chapter. I'm starting to lose my writer's touch… Anyway, enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 7

When dawn came around the next day, I woke up, feeling wide awake. Looking about, I saw Axel and Roxas holding one another in a warm embrace as they slept. Smiling softly, I silently left the room, spotting my brother and Kikoku still sleeping as well, and sat outside near the empty fire pit.

I remained perched on the railing, watching the sunrise as I thought about different things. I thought about the future, and what was to happen in that future. The thoughts flicked through my mind rapidly, and I began to feel overwhelmed, so once the sun had fully risen above the horizon, I began to go and wake the others.

As we ate, we all agreed to stick with the plan of teaching Riku how to breathe fire and tap into his dragon form. Sora was eager to help teach Riku, and I smirked a bit; the two were so close, it was amazing. They had obviously known one another for a long time.

"Riku!" Sora called as we gathered near the exit to glide down to the forest floor below. "I'll show you how to fly, so come on!" Riku joined his boyfriend, looking down at the ground nervously. "Don't worry, Riku, you'll do great!"

"All right, let's just do this and get it over with," Denkou muttered, his tone good-natured.

Sora quickly slit two lines in the back of Riku's shirt, allowing his wings to emerge. The golden wings sparkled lightly in the morning sun while the tip of his tail twitched nervously.

"Come on, Riku! Watch me!" Sora said eagerly, and immediately jumped off, spreading his emerald green wings wide and gliding to a large branch nearby. He waved enthusiastically from the branch as he tried to encourage Riku, and I idly wondered where the boy got all of his energy from.

"Riku, it'll come instinctually," Denkou told him, and then he suddenly shoved the silverette off the edge. Riku yelped as he flailed a bit, but then got his bearings and was able to snap his wings wide open, yanking him up slightly and allowing him to glide down to the ground. Denkou cackled with amusement at the sight, and then flew down, joining Riku.

Sora's big blue eyes had widened in shock when he had seen Denkou shove Riku off, but thanks to a stern look from Kikoku, he had remained where he was as his boyfriend learned how to fly.

"Denkou! What the fuck?!" Riku yelled at the topaz dragon as he landed. Denkou continued to snicker at the silverette, but finally answered once he sobered up.

"You were hesitating, and that's how a fledgling is taught in my territory," Denkou shrugged. Riku merely rolled his aquamarine eyes in response before we left for the clearing.

When we arrived in the clearing, Denkou coached Riku through how to breathe his golden flames, and then Sora switched with him once the silverette had gotten the hang of it after a bit. Once the brunette shifted into his dragon form, Riku's eyes widened in shock before he quickly recovered enough to listen to his boyfriend's instructions.

Riku concentrated as per Sora's directions, and then, with a small burst of sparks, the silverette transformed into his dragon form. He was now a golden armored dragon with aquamarine eyes that held fang-shaped pupils. He looked himself over, stunned at his new form.

"Now you're capable of using your dragon powers to their fullest, Riku," I said. He looked at me, surprised. "Before, you could only breathe fire, but now you're able to access your lightning and wind magic that Denkou has control over."

"I have control over wind, too?" Riku asked, tilting his head sideways slightly.

"Only a bit of control over it," Denkou answered. "The lapis-lazuli armored dragons are the ones with the best control over wind."

"There are lapis-lazuli armored dragons?" Roxas asked, looking surprised. "I thought there were only the dragons of the different clans, and then the ones from the tribes."

"Yeah, we know two from back in the Dragon Realms," Shadow replied. "They're twins, named Shito and Kaze. Complete opposites, I swear."

"You got that right," I chuckled. "Anyway, there aren't many of them left, and I don't know of any others besides those two."

"Okay, back to training," Denkou said, and we trained our respective partners in different new techniques and control over their respective elements. By the time we had finished, the sun was beginning to set, so we took off for home.

After eating and everyone had gone to bed, I remained curled up in my nest, thinking hard. If everyone from the first journey so far had a partner, then that meant possibly Kaze and Shito might be here, too.

I wasn't quite certain about it, though, seeing as Denkou never mentioned Shito or his mate's brother. Yes, Denkou and Shito are mates, but they love each other unconditionally. Anyway, I had a weird feeling about the remaining dragons, but I didn't know why.

Rose and Sky obviously had to be here, seeing as they were leaders of their respective clans, and had been on the first journey. I had a faint flicker of thought about Shadow and my older half-sister, Shunketsu, and immediately a wave of fear, sadness, and worry passed over me. Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach, and it felt like icy claws had gripped my spine when I thought about her being captured.

Closing my eyes tightly, I forced myself to relax, trying to clear the wretched thoughts from my head. _Please,_ please _don't let Shunketsu be here,_ I thought to myself before falling into a fitful slumber.

A/N: And there's my re-written version of Chapter 7! I hope you guys liked it, even though it was pretty short. R&R, peeps!


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: All right, back to chapter editing, and after chapter 21, I'll continue the story! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 8

We awoke one morning a few weeks later, ready for the day's events. When we had all started to eat around the fire pit, I announced my plans for the time being.

"All right, guys, today's gonna be a bit different than yesterday," I began. They all looked at me, interested. "I'm going to have everyone start battle practice. Riku and Denkou will continue training while Sora, Shadow, and Kikoku do some battle practice.

"Meanwhile, I'll need Roxas and Axel to help me with planning our assault. We'll join in on battle practice after we get some more information, so no need to worry. And the key things with practice are that first, no one gets too badly hurt, and second, fight fair. No dirty tricks. That can happen during actual fights, but not practice. Any questions?" No one said anything.

"Good. Now let's get to it!" Everyone cheered and started to leave, with the exception of Roxas, Axel, and me. We headed straight for the computer and I began to hack into the network. As I typed, I heard the pair murmuring to each other, and I realized it was about Axel's past relationship with someone named Demyx. I heard him mention his age, which was 21. I was surprised because I thought he was older. At least, he looked tall enough to be at least 23.

I listened in, realizing that this Demyx guy was bonded to a dragon. At least, it sounded like Sky from the way Axel spoke. Sky must have been helping to keep Demyx from becoming too hyper, seeing as that was Sky's personality. He was always one of the calmer ones of our group unless water was involved. I continued to type away as I hacked into the lab network and database, soon finding the blueprints for the lab in Port Royal.

I was quick to print them off, and I retrieved them, placing them in the folder where I kept all of the blueprints from our assaults. When I looked up from my work again, I saw Roxas and Axel holding each other in a tight embrace, sapphire and emerald eyes locked on each other. Clearing my throat, I smirked slightly, and they quickly broke apart, looking at me in surprise and embarrassment. I laughed lightly.

"Don't worry, you guys. I'm okay with PDA," I told them with a teasing look. "When you have a brother with a mate for almost three centuries and hang around them a lot, you get used to it."

Axel laughed loudly as Roxas just ducked his head, his face red from being embarrassed. Snickering, I went back to my work of searching the files, finding out Rose was with someone named Zexion. I soon discovered they were being held in a place called Agrabah. I should have known Rose was here if Sky was.

I found their files and pulled them up, discovering they were being called Experiment #11 and Experiment #12. I was also hell bent on trying to find out who was in the seventh and eighth labs, and so I started to dig through that information in their system. I was able to find them, and I found the location of the seventh lab was called Destiny Islands. I was surprised, to say the least.

Roxas and I had lived there until we were captured, and then escaped to Twilight Town's forest. I swiftly started to search through the files to find out who they had, and when I pulled up the files, I saw Ventus's file and picture, as well as a black and white dragon I didn't recognize. I knew this had to be Ven's dragon partner. I gasped when I saw Ven's picture, and Roxas and Axel were quick to join me in looking at the monitor.

The blonde started to tear up at the sight of his identical twin brother, and Axel and I started to try and calm him down. He calmed down after a bit, but still looked devastated. Axel held him close to his heart, and it seemed the sound of Axel's heartbeat was soothing Roxas, and I watched sadly next to him.

Soon enough, Roxas was calm again, but he stared at the floor, unmoving except for his breathing. After what seemed like an hour, he finally moved, standing up and looking at me with determination.

"Night, is it possible to save Ventus and his partner after saving the next dragon and their partner?" he asked. "I need my brother." I sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry, Roxas, but Destiny Islands has the highest security out of all the labs," I reminded him. "You and I both know that. We'll also need Rose and Zexion's help, and besides, since Rose and Sky are mates, they can't stay away from the other for too long."

"…Alright. I'll try and wait," he whispered after a long pause. Axel held him tight, trying to provide comfort. The redhead looked liked he wanted to say something, but he held his tongue.

"Roxas, you and I both know that I would do anything to help you get your brother back," I told him. "Anything at all. I just can't right now, though, because we'll need all the help we can get."

"I know, Night…It's just hard, though," the blonde mumbled.

"I understand," I told him. "I know exactly how it feels. Back during our first journey, Shadow almost died, as did I, but I thought I'd lost him for good. I didn't, but it still terrified me."

"Thank you, Night," Roxas said suddenly. I blinked at him, confused. "For everything. I trust you when you say we'll save him before it's too late. I know we can do it."

"Good attitude," I praised, breaking the serious atmosphere. "It's good to be optimistic."

"You're right," Axel laughed, finally speaking. Suddenly, he asked what seemed to be on his mind. "Is there someone named Demyx in there? 'Cause I'm pretty sure he was bonded to a dragon."

"Is this him?" I asked, turning my laptop to face Axel, and showing him a picture of Sky and a picture next to him of a sandy blonde that had his hair styled into a sort of mullet/mohawk style. The blonde has sea-green eyes that seemed to glitter with constant joy. Upon seeing Axel's expression of fear, I knew that had to be him.

"Yeah, that's him," the redheaded hybrid whispered, sounding horrified. Now it was Roxas's turn to comfort his mate. The blonde wrapped his arms around Axel's waist, nuzzling his face into the redhead's neck. Axel hugged him back tightly.

"We're going to Port Royal next, and that's where he's being held," I told him. "Don't worry, Axel, we'll save him. I overheard you two talking earlier, and I know how close you and Demyx were as a couple, and it sounds like you two remained friends even after the relationship ended, huh?" He nodded, and I fixed Roxas with a knowing look. He nodded, and kissed Axel lightly in the cheek.

"Axel, we'll save Demyx next, I promise," he murmured quietly. Unfortunately, there was the smallest note of hurt in Roxas's tone, making Axel look at him.

"Roxy, you know I only love you, right?" the redhead asked. When Roxas nodded slightly, Axel continued. "Demyx and I were once together, yes, but not anymore. My heart only belongs to you now."

"Thank you, Axel," Roxas whispered, and they kissed lightly. When they finished kissing, they looked to me.

"Thanks, Night. You've done so much for us," Axel said sincerely. I smiled warmly at them and nodded.

"Of course, guys," I said simply.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging about, talking about battle strategies and such, at least until the others came home. I sighed with content as I watched them, kissing and murmuring "I love you" to each other. It was sweet to watch, and I knew they would make excellent parents.

I decided that that night, I would allow the blonde and redhead a night alone. They wouldn't have a chance to mate until they were alone for a night, and I knew this would be the right time. They were both ready, that much was obvious. I stood, telling them to stay in bed as I went to the others and spoke to them quietly.

"Guys, we're gonna give those two some privacy for the night," I whispered. "They deserve it, especially considering all they've done. We're going to sleep in the trees by the clearing tonight. It'll be like a makeshift camping trip."

"Cool!" Sora squealed excitedly. "This'll be great! I can't wait! WHOO!"

"That's the attitude, Sora," I praised. Denkou was looking at me oddly, and I realized I hadn't yet shared with him that Roxas could become pregnant. I bent closer to him and breathed nearly silently into his ear, "Roxas is capable of bearing young." He snapped his head back to stare at me, but shook it, realizing I was telling the truth.

"We're talking about this during the trip," he said firmly, and I nodded. I quickly went back to the pair in their bed, and told them our plans, and shared that they were to have a good time.

"We'll be back in the morning," I told them. "Just enjoy yourselves." I winked as I said the last bit, and Axel kissed Roxas, and as the kiss started to deepen, I knew it was high time for us to leave. I quickly packed up the things we'd need for the night and left, calling out a "see ya" as I left.

I led the others to the clearing, and we gathered materials for a fire pit, digging out a shallow hole and lining it with rocks, and then stacking wood on it. I breathed a small flame on it, starting the blaze, and we all sat back, enjoying some of the prey we had caught on the way over. We chatted for a long while, and I noticed that Sora and Riku were watching me with strange expressions. I realized that I hadn't yet explained about Roxas's fertility, so I silenced everyone so I could explain.

"Denkou, I know you wanted an explanation from earlier, and I know that Sora and Riku are confused as well," I started. "Basically, Roxas is capable of bearing young."

Sora gasped in shock while Riku stared at me with wide eyes. "The scientists at the lab Roxas and I were kept at changed his genetics slightly more than was necessary, and now he's capable of becoming pregnant. He knows this, too." I stared directly at Sora when I said the next part.

"Sora, you're capable, too. I read your file in the system, and they did the same with you as they did with Roxas; they made you capable of becoming pregnant." He stared at me, his eyes almost bugged out of his head, and he started to shake. Riku held him close, and I knew that something had happened between them. "Sora, is there something you're not sharing?"

"I…" he began, but his voice cracked. Riku began to rub soothing circles on his back, and Sora began to cry. "W-we…mated…" he whispered, and everyone stared at him, stunned. Riku held him tight, trying to calm him down. I noticed Kikoku get up and give him one of her herbs to calm him down, and he soon fell asleep from the exhaustion once he was calm. Riku glanced at me nervously.

"Riku, it's okay," I assured him. "Even if Sora's pregnant, everything will be fine. We've got Kikoku with us, and she's had children. They're all full grown and healthy." At this last part, Shadow growled under his breath, and I mouthed an apology to him. I turned my attention back to Riku. "All I ask is that you support him and be there for him. That's what he'll need and want, and I know you can do it."

"I'll do my best," he whispered, and held Sora close to him. I realized how late it was, and looked at everyone.

"Let's get some sleep, everyone. It's been a long day, and we'll need the rest for the next few weeks until Riku is trained," I suggested, and they all nodded. I helped Riku scale one of the trees with a hollow in the trunk, and aided him in getting Sora inside with him. I bid him good night, and left to my own branch. As I drifted off to sleep, the only thought running through my head was, _I hope Roxas and Axel are okay…_

A/N: Whoop! Here's the end of this chapter, now to work on Chapter 9~ R&R, peeps!


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Chapter 9! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 9

I woke the next day feeling stiff, so I stood on the branch I had slept on and stretched, yawning hugely. As I stretched, I heard a sound coming from nearby, and it sounded like soft crying.

I traced the sound from where I was without moving and realized it was coming from the spot where Sora and Riku had slept last night. I slipped over there, listening in on their conversation. From the sound of it, it seemed like Riku was just trying to comfort Sora for the time being, but then I heard them speak.

"I don't know what to do, Riku," Sora was saying. "I don't think I'm ready for this."

"Sora, whatever you want to do, I'm here for you," Riku's voice told him. "I'll be there for you every step of the way."

"Thank you, Riku," Sora whispered, and I heard them kiss. I silently slipped down to the forest floor and called out a good morning to wake everyone up who wasn't already up. After everyone had done their morning stretches, we all sat and ate, but I noticed Sora wasn't eating much. He actually looked a bit pale.

"Sora," I called to him, and he froze from picking at his fruit to look at me. "You okay? I understand you're scared, but you need your strength. We're going back home today, after all, and I don't want you to pass out while running from lack of food."

"I'm just a bit nauseous," he mumbled, and Kikoku started to look through her pack for the right herb for nausea. When she passed it to him, he took it, grimacing at the bitter taste, and then started to eat his fruit.

"Better?" she asked her friend. He nodded and she smiled warmly at him, showing she understood. He smiled back and nodded again, showing he knew. After we finished eating, we left for home, ready to assess the damage of the tree house.

When we got inside, however, it was almost spotless, with the exception of the bedroom. Roxas and Axel's clothes were scattered around the bed, and the pair was covered with their blanket. I chuckled softly, knowing what they had done, and I gently woke them.

Roxas looked startled when he saw us as his vision began to clear, and he blushed deeply, knowing that they knew what had transpired the night prior. Shadow woke Axel next, and the redhead leaned over and kissed Roxas on the cheek, making the blonde blush even deeper.

"I love you," the redhead mumbled against Roxas's cheek.

"I love you, too," Roxas whispered, and shifted slightly so that his lips captured the redhead's. I heard a cough nearby, and glared at Denkou, knowing he made the interrupting sound. As soon as he made it, the pair in the bed stopped kissing, but Axel still kept his arm wrapped around Roxas's waist.

I shooed everyone out of the room as soon as I could, just to let the pair have some privacy as they dressed. Once they were out and the doors and windows were shut, I faced the nearest wall so I couldn't see them as they put some clothes on.

"Did you guys have a good time last night?" I asked in a teasing tone of voice. Roxas began to splutter indignantly, but Axel just laughed.

"Of course we did. Why wouldn't I have fun with my Roxie?" Axel laughed. Roxas gave me the okay, and when I looked, he was blushing deeply, looking as though he wanted to smack the redhead. He refrained from doing so, however, and I snickered.

I watched as they kissed again, and when they finally pulled apart, both of them were breathless. Suddenly, a rock flew in through an open window with a note attached to it. Roxas picked it up and read it aloud.

"'We know what you did…'" Roxas squeaked as Axel grabbed his ass, and I heard a cackle from outside. I shook my head in shame. I couldn't believe those guys were being so immature. I opened the windows and doors again and they quickly darted inside.

"Okay, really? What's with the level of immaturity?" I demanded. "Whose idea was the note?" Everyone but Denkou pointed at him while he pointed at Shadow. I sighed heavily, shaking my head again. "Denkou, really? Why do you do this? I know you're the goofball of the group, but really? That was just plain stupid."

"Sorry, couldn't resist," my best friend snickered. I groaned and face-palmed.

"Whatever, just don't do it again," I warned him. I repeated our plans for today from yesterday, and everyone set out, but before Sora could leave, I gently grabbed his wrist. He looked at me with wide eyes and seemed confused. "Sora, just know that no matter what happens, we're all here for you. You can count on us for support."

"Thank you, so much," he whispered, and embraced me. It was kinda awkward, considering I'm only about a foot and a half tall, whereas Sora is 5' 5". Once he released me, he soared after the others. I trotted back inside, and joined back up with my friends. We planned for our assault all day, deciding once again to sneak through rather than a head-on attack. We continued to plan for most of the day until the others got back, and we ate and went to sleep.

The next morning came, and this time, it would be Roxas, Axel, and my turn to practice our battle techniques. I trembled in excitement as we made our way to the clearing, and upon reaching it, I had Roxas sit out as Axel and I prepared to practice. He changed into his dragon form, releasing a burst of light flames as he did so.

When he finished his transformation, we all noticed the change in his armor. It was still black like before, but now he had small orbs of light flickering in his armor. His eyes widened at the sight, and I cheered on the inside. However, I kept my exterior cool, calm, and collected.

"Axel, you've gained your true armor," I told him. "It shows that you've proven yourself in a way that satisfies the dragon ancestors. You now have your final form."

"So…does this mean I have more power than before?" he asked, still slightly puzzled.

"Well, it actually depends," I replied. "Your armor will grant your greatest wish that lies within your heart, and you'll know when it's come true. You'll just have a feeling, so don't fret over it. When the others gained their true armor, they gained their armor patterns and increased power in their elements, plus their signature traits increased, just depending on what it is."

"All right…But what did I do?" the redhead asked me.

"That's something you'll either figure out on your own, or you'll be told in your dreams," I answered. "Now that you have your final form, I'll escort you in your dreams to the dream world, and you'll be told what happened."

"Okay, I think that makes sense," he said in understanding. I shook my head with a slight smile.

"Don't worry about it now," I advised. "Let's just practice." And on that note, I lunged at him, bearing my fangs. I snarled as I landed on him, making him yelp in shock.

"You need to be more on your toes," I hissed in his ear. As I pulled back, he kicked me, launching me through the air and into a tree. As I slid down, Axel charged me again, growling.

I swiftly performed a dodge roll, making him crash into the tree instead. He began to back away from the tree, stunned, and I jumped onto his back, gripping onto his armor tight. I quickly pinned him with all four legs, and pinned his tail with my own. I leaned down, opening my jaws enough to fit his throat in my mouth.

Right before I closed my jaws, I whispered, "Check mate." Releasing him, I stepped back as he breathed hard.

"Damn, you're good," he panted. "How'd you get that good?"

"Well, first of all, it helps with at least four centuries of training, and second of all, you made too many careless mistakes," I answered. "You weren't cautious enough, didn't pay enough attention to your surroundings, made a head on charge, which is always a mistake, and allowed yourself to be pinned. Here's a tip: next time you're being pinned, don't allow your tail to be pinned. If you can avoid it, then it's your best means of escape."

"All right, I'll try that next time," he agreed, getting his breathing under control. Roxas darted over and checked Axel over, making sure he was okay. "I'm fine, Roxie, don't worry too much."

"How can I _not_ worry?" Roxas snapped. "You could have been killed if that was a real opponent!"

"Well, it was Night, and he wouldn't kill me," Axel pointed out. Roxas sighed and hugged Axel close, just happy he was okay. Denkou laughed as he and Riku joined us, and I glared at my best friend.

"Wow, that was bad," he snickered, and I growled at him.

"Oh, so you think you can beat me in a fight without magic?" I teased. He sobered up at once, staring at me in disbelief.

"Are you kidding? I could beat you with one hand behind my back!" he said cockily. I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

"Let's see you try without being that drastic," I taunted. We made our way to the center of the clearing and shook hands, promising a fair fight. As soon as Shadow called for the fight to begin, I spun around and darted towards Denkou as he lunged, snarling.

We collided like rams, but snarled as we clashed like a pair of rabid wolves. I broke away and bolted forward in a head slam into his chest, smashing into him like a cannonball. He fell back, snarling, and I practically danced away, laughing at him.

"Have you gone soft over the years, my friend?" I cackled. He snarled under his breath as he got to his feet, and then he charged me. I dodge rolled out of the way right before he made contact, and whipped around, digging my claws into his back.

As he fell, I gripped his wrists and ankles, pinning him to the ground and wrapping my tail around his, rendering him helpless. "I win!" I declared, and broke off the contact. He snorted in frustration and got to his feet. Once on his feet, he grabbed my hand and shook it.

"Man, you've gotten better. I forgot how good you are," he said, slowly shaking his head with a slight smile on his face. "What, were you practicing this whole time while it was just you and Roxas after his change?"

"I guess you could say that," I told him with a grin. "I got practice when I had to help him fend off violent bullies in school."

"Damn, they must've been good fighters or major meatheads for you to get that much practice in," Denkou admitted. "Jeez, I have some catching up to do, then."

"Yes you do," I agreed with a laugh. He glared at me playfully and chuckled to himself.

We continued on with the day's training, but it soon became sunset, so we had to head for home. As we ran back home, I noticed Roxas and Axel, both in their human forms, keeping close to each other. They were closer now that they had mated, I knew that much.

Their bond was stronger than anything I had ever seen, and that's pretty impressive considering that I've seen my brother and his mate's adoring gazes, and they held pure devotion and love. We arrived home, ate, and went to sleep just like any other night, but this time I moved my nest closer to Roxas and Axel's bed. They looked at me with interest as I moved it, probably wondering why I was moving it closer.

"In case you're wondering, I just want to be closer to you guys," I told them, and they nodded in understanding before cuddling up to each other and falling asleep. As I curled up, it felt like a million thoughts were running through my head. The most prominent one, though, was this: _Who is Ventus's dragon partner?_

A/N: All right, Chapter 9 is complete! Now to work on Chapter 10~ R&R, peeps!


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Okay, here's the edited chapter 10! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 10

It was close to a month later that we had begun to prepare for the assault on Port Royal's lab. We had already gone over the plan with everyone (we being Roxas, Axel, and me), and everyone had prepped themselves both physically and mentally. Riku had finished his training, and Sora had stayed as close as possible to his mate. I noticed the slight bump that was appearing on Sora's stomach, and I wasn't sure if I should have him stay at the tree house or come with us.

If I was to have him stay home, I'd need someone to stay with him, and I wasn't sure who. If he was to stay behind, I would need at least two members of our group to stay with him. One to care for and protect him, and the other for lookout. I sighed and decided to ask Sora the night before we left on what he thought.

"Sora, can I ask you something?" I said that night by the fire. He looked at me and nodded, and we left the room. He knew he was pregnant, as did everyone else, Roxas and Axel included.

Axel soon learned after mating with Roxas about the blonde's bearing capabilities, and his reaction was unexpected, to say the least. He was delighted to find out that they might have a child on the way, and supported Roxas whenever he felt his mate needed it.

"Yeah, sure, Night. What's up?" Sora asked. I hesitated and sighed.

"Sora, would you prefer to stay home tomorrow, or do you want to come with us?" I finally asked. He watched me, seeming confused, and then comprehension dawned on his face.

"Well, it depends," he murmured after a long pause. "Do you think I'd be safe with you? Or do you think I'd hold you back?"

"I highly doubt you'd hold us back," I answered. "I'm just worried about your pregnancy. I'm sorry if it's a touchy subject, but I'd rather you not put yourself and the baby at risk."

"…I guess…I'll stay home, then," Sora mumbled after a while. "I hadn't thought of the baby, I was just pushing myself to become better without thinking. It's probably a good idea for me to stay home tomorrow."

"I'm glad this helped you to think about things," I told him. "After all, new life is always important to us. And I think I'll have Riku and Kikoku stay with you tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you," he said, and we rejoined with the others. I told them what the change in plan was, and Riku and Kikoku agreed easily.

After eating, we went to bed, and got up right before dawn the next day. I woke the ones who were coming and we stretched our wings, basking in the early morning light. I passed around some fruit that we each ate, and then launched myself airborne, the others soon following.

I looked over the map that I had memorized in my head, and thought about where to stop for the night before we launched our sneak attack. I eventually decided on one of the islands nearby the mainland, and announced that decision to the others as we flew. They all nodded and we flew on in silence.

We hardly expended any energy flying this time around, seeing as we had better thermals than the past times we had left. We just used them to glide, hardly any flapping involved. After what felt like eons, but was really just eight hours, I saw the mainland coming into view.

I veered off, away from the mainland and followed an invisible route I had memorized to the nearest island. The others followed in silence, and when we landed, I saw why: they were all exhausted. I slumped slightly forward, feeling my muscles scream in protest when I tried to stand back up again.

I ignored them and stumbled, realizing I needed to rest just as much as the others. After a short, five minute rest, I stood back up and approached the shore. As I watched the water, I noticed several fat, silver fish swimming just below the surface.

Swiftly, I lashed out, hooking at least three fish without stirring the water too much. I killed the fish easily, and lashed out again, hooking the rest. I carried my catch back to the others, who had already started a fire. They looked up when I returned, and I noticed Roxas's eyes light up at the sight of the fish in my jaws.

"Oh thank god!" he cried out. "I've been craving fish lately!" I smiled once I set them down, and my blonde friend quickly snatched one up, spearing it with a stick and holding it out over the fire. I chuckled, knowing all too well why he had this craving. It was obvious he was pregnant.

I'm sure that Roxas knows, too. He'd felt a little nauseous in the mornings during the past two weeks, and even though he wasn't showing the physical signs of pregnancy, it was obvious. Everyone else followed his example, choosing to cook their fish instead of eating it raw for once. I copied them, grabbing the last fish and spearing it with a stick, and then roasting it over the fire.

As we ate in silence, I thought about that mystery dragon that Ven is paired with, and tried to think about who he was. It was almost like I knew him, but I didn't at the same time. He just looked so familiar, and I couldn't quite place my claw on the reason why. He seemed like any other armored dragon, having black and white patterned armor and one black eye and one white eye. In the picture of his wings, I remember he had one black wing and one white wing. It was strange because I had never seen a dragon that was two colors like that.

I snapped out of my thoughts suddenly and looked around; everyone had fallen asleep after eating. I sighed to myself and decided to keep watch for the time being until midnight came. I continued to brood over my thoughts about that dragon. I didn't recognize him in the slightest when I thought about him, and yet something in his looks just screamed _familiar_ to me.

I shook my head, trying to clear it of those thoughts. After a moment, I looked up and realized it was time to go. I woke the others and used my water magic to extinguish the fire. They grumbled slightly, but otherwise got up without complaint.

Once everyone was awake and ready to go, I led the way to the lab on the mainland. As we flew, I pointed to the roof, and everyone followed me as I led the way there. Roxas and Axel had already shifted to their dragon forms, and Denkou, upon seeing Roxas's, was pretty impressed. He had let out a low whistle, pleased with Roxas's progress.

We landed on the roof, and Denkou popped open the vent cover and I slid inside, Roxas next, followed by Axel, Shadow, and Denkou. We planned on teleporting back home again, just like when we had saved Sora and Kikoku, due to the fact that it would be too hard on our bodies to try and fly home with Demyx and Sky in our arms.

We crawled through the ventilation ducts, making our way to the control room, just like before. When we got there, though, I paused. It seemed they were on a bit of a higher alert than the past times, and I knew that this time we would all fight. There were six guards compared to the one in the past. We would have to provide a distraction, though…Aha!

"Denkou," I hissed, and he crept over to me. "Can you short out the power in the control room? Just to turn out the lights so we can kill them without too much noise."

He nodded in understanding, and I backed away from him as he focused. Suddenly, the lights went out in the control room, but the screens were still on. We scurried past Denkou and swiftly disposed of the guards, piling their bodies in the corner. Once finished, Denkou released the energy, and a burst of light flooded the room.

He jumped into the room as the lights flickered back on, and I hopped into the control system chair. As I typed, I noticed Denkou watching me with shock on his face, and I smirked; it seemed he was impressed by my computer tech and hacking skills.

I quickly finished the final security gate off in the system, and disarmed the alarm systems as well as unlocking the safe to the keys for the cages and Demyx and Sky's files. I needed to look over their information, and the safe held it all.

I snatched up the files when I finished, and led the others to the lab. We all kept our guards up, seeing as this time this place was more secure. Upon reaching the lab, we darted into the shadows and remained hidden as several guards were coming out of the entrance to the lab. I growled nearly silently under my breath and thought. What could make them leave their posts?

I decided that now was the time to act when I suddenly heard a whimper from beyond the door, following by snarling. I noticed Axel was tense, and I knew that he knew what was going on: Demyx was either being changed or was just changed.

Using my tail, I flicked it towards the guards, indicating to attack. Denkou went first, lunging out from his hiding spot and letting a blast of lightning loose from his jaws. I followed next, Roxas and Axel close behind. Shadow charged in last, snarling. I shot a jet of water at the guards, and then froze it into an icicle spear.

It pierced the guard I was aiming at, and he collapsed, dead. Axel shot a stream of flames from his jaws and Roxas followed it with a blast of light from his claws. Shadow finished them off, using nature to create thorned vines from the floor and slashed the guards, killing the last ones.

We charged through the now open door; in the guards' haste to stop us, they forgot to shut it after coming out. As we ran in, we were greeted by a somewhat tall sandy blonde with his hair styled in a mullet/mohawk style. He looked _beyond_ pissed. I noticed he had a protective stance over a deep blue armored dragon, and I realized it was Sky.

"Sky!" Shadow, Denkou, and I called out. He didn't move except to stir slightly. Demyx seemed to be trying to protect him with his life, and I knew that if we didn't stop him soon, they would both die. Axel approached first, now in his human form. He was dressed in the same outfit as when we had saved Sora and Kikoku, but he had his hood down this time so Demyx would recognize him. Roxas shifted back, too. I suddenly noticed that there were dead scientists lying around the lab, and I mentally sighed with relief.

"Demyx…?" Axel called to him softly. Demyx stared at Axel, his pure deep blue eyes terrified. There were no pupils or whites, just the blue, and I knew that this was Sky's protective nature that he was given shining through. It was the same with any armored dragon. We have no whites or pupils in our eyes, just the color. Anyway, Axel took a small step towards Demyx, calling to him softly. "Demyx, it's Axel. Your friend? Remember me?"

"…Axel…?" he growled, and suddenly collapsed. His wings drooped, as did his tail as he fell. Axel dashed forward, catching him, and I scooped up Sky in my arms. Everyone gathered around Shadow and me, touching some part of us, and we teleported back home.

Upon arriving home, Kikoku was the first to approach us. She darted toward us, taking Sky out of my arms and having Riku take Demyx from Axel. She began to look them over and 'tsked' to herself.

"Oh man, these poor guys haven't had it easy, have they?" she murmured to herself. I looked them over to see what she was seeing, and I noticed them: marks. They had several cuts and needle marks all over their bodies.

She sighed heavily and had me get the medical supplies for her. When I brought them, she quickly started to clean their wounds and smeared healing ointment on them, and then covered them with gauze and bandages.

When she finished, she stepped back and sighed again. "Let them have plenty of rest, if possible. I won't be surprised if Sky tries to get up as soon as he realizes Demyx isn't next to him, but for now, just keep watch over them both."

"Okay. Thanks, Kikoku," I told her. "You're a lifesaver."

"Oh, it was nothing," she scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. She looked at me and Shadow and said, "You two should probably start on another tree house for Demyx and Sky to share, and for Rose and Zexion to move into when we help them, too."

"Gotcha," Shadow said easily. He started to head out to the opposite side of our tree house, away from Sora and Riku's, and began to use his magic to form the new tree house. I shrugged and began to help him, using nature to form it and earth magic to make it solid. We finished after a few hours and then began to use more magic to furnish it. I made the bed and dresser while Shadow made the rest of the little things to make it seem more 'homey'. Right as we finished, Sora flew in, eyes wide.

"Sora? What's wrong?" I demanded.

"Sky's waking up," he panted. "Demyx is about to as well, and we need someone to pin and calm him."

"We're on our way," Shadow told him, and we flew back over to Sora and Riku's tree house. When we got there, I saw Axel trying desperately to pin Demyx and calm him, but it wasn't working.

Demyx's wings and tail continued to thrash with the rest of his body. Sky woke up suddenly, and ran over, shoving Axel out of the way and quickly soothing Demyx. When Axel tumbled to the floor, he watched Sky in disbelief as the sapphire armored dragon was able to quickly calm the mulleted sandy blonde. Once he was calm, the pair seemed to notice everyone around them. Sky shrank back, seeming nervous, and Demyx held him close. Suddenly, Sky recognized his old friends and relaxed.

"Night? Shadow? Denkou? Kikoku? What are you guys doing here?" he asked, perplexed. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what happened?" I answered for everyone.

"We saved you and your friend Demyx there from the lab you were being held at," I told him. "Demyx has been changed into a human and dragon hybrid, so he now can do everything that you can, Sky."

"…What?" Sky breathed. "How—what—where—why?"

I launched into the explanation that I had told the others when they arrived, and Roxas and Axel chimed in here and there. When Axel started to speak, though, I noticed Demyx's head whipped around to look at him, stunned he was there. Finally, the sandy blonde spoke.

"Axel? Why are you here?" he asked. Axel laughed lightly and told him what happened to him and Shadow, and how we found them, saved them, and trained him.

He shared with Demyx what he now was, and introduced Roxas to him as his mate. Demyx started to tear up when he heard of Roxas being Axel's mate, but they were tears of joy. "Axel, I'm happy for you. I know you've had some hard times, but I'm glad that you're now content in life," Demyx told his friend.

"Demy…" Axel mumbled, hanging his head. He raised his head and spoke up. "I just hope that you find that special someone for yourself, Demy."

"Oh, I think I have, so no worries!" Demyx assured him, and hugged his old friend. When he pulled away, though, he looked sad. "I just don't know where Zexion is, though…"

"Hold on, did you say Zexion?" I asked. Demyx nodded, watching my reaction. "I know him, sort of. I found his file in the computer system that the labs have. She's his dragon partner."

"Wait, Zexy has a dragon partner and I didn't know it?" Demyx yelped, flailing his arms. Wow, this guy is a spaz…

"Yeah, and she's my mate," Sky told him. He turned his head to look at me. "Are you sure it's the same Rose?"

"Who else do we know by that name that's a ruby armored dragon?" I huffed. Sky ducked his head, looking sheepish.

"Sorry, I just wasn't sure. I don't want to find out it's someone else, that's all," he mumbled.

"It's fine, no worries," I said dismissively, and the began introducing everyone. Once the introductions were finished, Demyx smiled at everyone and introduced himself, but it was unnecessary seeing as we all already knew him.

We chatted for a while and then ate, conversing in a casual manner for once instead of eating in silence. When finished, everyone was exhausted, so we went to our respective beds for the night. I curled up for the night, tucking my nose into my tail as usual, and the full moon that night made my silver armor glitter as it shone through the open window.

I sighed in content, but then remembered about that mystery dragon, and my mind decided to focus on that. The thoughts ran through my head, and I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Eventually, I fell asleep, but it was fitful.

A/N: And now on to Chapter 11! R&R, peeps!


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Chapter 11! Enjoy~

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and the dragons.

The Experiment

Chapter 11

I was rudely woken the next morning by someone shaking me awake.

"Night. Night! _Night! Wake up!_" someone yelled in my ear. My eyes snapped open and I sat up way too fast, causing a wave of dizziness wash over me. I looked to thee source of the voice that had woken me, and once my vision cleared, I saw it was just Roxas. I shook my head, trying to clear the grogginess. Once I was more aware of my surroundings, I realized it wasn't just Roxas; everyone was gathered around me.

"Um…why is everyone in here?" I asked, confused. They looked at each other, concerned expressions on their faces. Eventually, Sky spoke.

"You were thrashing in your sleep, muttering things we couldn't understand," he told me in his quiet voice. "We all thought you might be suffering from a nightmare."

"Really?" I said, and I glanced at Shadow. He knew how nightmares worked, seeing as he suffered from them for months after our first journey. "I don't remember anything, though. I didn't dream; or at least, I don't think I did."

"Huh," Shadow murmured. "Then it wasn't a nightmare. It must have just been a fluke." Everyone sighed in relief. I got to my feet, stretching like a cat and yawning widely.

"Well, I feel fine now," I assured them, and everyone smiled at me, satisfied with my answer. I climbed out of my nest and began to lead everyone to the fire pit, and looked outside; it was already morning, and the sun was shining brightly. It was later than I normally got up, so we would have our time cut short today. Ah well, no big deal.

I passed around some food for everyone, and we ate quickly, trying to hurry and get ready for training today. As we left, I let Shadow lead the way to the clearing as I hung back to walk with Axel. I needed to speak with him about finding out how he gained his final form.

He looked at me when I ran in pace with him, and then nodded to Roxas to go ahead. The blonde glanced at me, seeming worried, but went ahead with Shadow anyway.

"What's up, Night?" Axel asked once his mate was out of earshot.

"I wanted to find out if you're ready to go to the dream world and find out the reason you gained your final form," I told him. His eyes widened as he ran, but then relaxed after a moment.

"Yeah…yeah, I'd like to find out," he replied.

"Good," I said. "We'll go tonight. You'll have to sleep without Roxas tonight, or else it won't work. I know he won't like it, seeing as he needs you, but I'm sure he'll be fine."

"…All right, I'll be ready tonight," he mumbled. His red spikes flowed in the wind like the leaves did, and I realized that Roxas had indeed chosen a good mate. Axel was loyal and kind, and a true lover. My blonde friend had done well, and I was proud of him.

"Great. Make sure to let Roxas know so he's not too upset," I advised, and he nodded. "Thanks. Now let's see how Demyx does in water!" Axel looked at me, bewildered, and I darted ahead to the lead and led the group to the river. When we got there, everyone looked at me in confusion.

"What are we doing here instead of the clearing, Night?" Kikoku asked. I nodded at Sky and Demyx.

"We're gonna watch Sky train Demyx and have Axel show Demyx how to access his dragon form. Seeing as Sky's elements are water and ice, it's best to train Demyx near the river," I explained. "Besides, it'll be good swimming practice for Demyx in his new form."

"Ah, okay," Denkou said in understanding. I looked at Axel and nodded to him, and he walked over to Demyx and began to explain to him how to access his dragon form. Demyx did as instructed, and in a burst of water and ice crystals, he changed into a dragon with deep blue armor and wings, and his sea green eyes with black, fang-shaped pupils.

Sky gave a low whistle showing his impression with the form. Demyx looked himself over, and then dashed to the water's edge to look at his reflection. He cheered excitedly, and we all laughed at his enthusiasm.

After a bit of Sky showing Demyx how to control his water and ice magic, I led everyone to the river's edge. I knew it was a fast current, but I also knew that I could handle it. I quickly jumped in, swimming to the bottom and staying there for a moment to adjust to the temperature.

Once a few seconds had passed, I darted to the surface, fighting the current, and leapt out from the water, turning a perfect somersault and landing back on the bank of the river again. Roxas just looked smug, Shadow, Denkou, Kikoku, and Sky indifferent, and the others kinda just…gaped. They looked stunned, as though they didn't think I was capable of that. I laughed at their expressions, and when the others noticed their faces, they joined in. I think Roxas laughed the hardest at Axel.

"How'd you do that?" Demyx asked finally once we all had calmed down. I grinned with my own pride and told him quietly in his ear how I do my little trick, and he smiled broadly when I finished. "I wanna try, I wanna try!" he cried out.

"Try having Sky teach you," I advised. "He's the one who taught Shadow and me that."

"Gotcha!" he said eagerly, and he and Sky began to train. As they went about with training, I approached Shadow with a question.

"Shadow, do you still have Father's pendant?" I breathed in his ear.

"Yeah, it's in my pack at the tree house," he told me without turning his head. He knew why I needed it, so he didn't bother to ask any questions.

Our father, Naiya, had a pendant made from his armor before he was killed before Shadow and I were born, and it was meant to be passed down to his only two sons, Shadow and me.

When we discovered the necklace, we found out it could give us access to the dream realm to speak with our father or any other heavenly spirits. We used it when we needed to speak with him. All you need to do to use it is wear it while you sleep. Anyone who is in physical contact with you while you go will also go with you.

I planned on using it tonight with Axel to bring him to the dream realm and discover why he gained his final form. By the time the sun was about ready to set, we left for home because poor Demyx was exhausted.

He could barely run straight as we left for home, so instead of having him fly up to the tree house, I had him climb. He dug his razor sharp claws into the bark and began to scrabble up the tree, panting the entire way up. We all waited for him at the top, watching in case he looked about to fall. After a couple of minutes, he finally dragged himself into the entrance, his chest heaving.

"You okay, Dem?" Axel asked his friend.

"Yeah…just…peachy…" Demyx panted. Sky sighed with relief and picked his partner up while he was still in dragon form, and dragged him over to the fire pit. He picked up a bowl of water from the day before that was clean and made Demyx drink it.

Once he got some water in him, his erratic breathing began to calm and slow into normal breathing. Eventually, he was well enough to change back into his human form. I passed Demyx and Sky each a fish I had caught from the river and Sky greedily snatched it up. I gave him a look that read, 'seriously?' He just shrugged as he happily ate his fish.

"You have know idea how long it's been since I've had fresh fish, Night," Sky told me in between bites. "Demyx couldn't go fishing often enough between college, work, and free time, so I had to hunt small prey animals. It sucked not having fish."

"Sorry, but you know how busy they kept me with the homework and how many shifts my boss gave me!" Demyx said defensively, and we laughed.

We chatted happily as we ate our fish dinner, just enjoying our time together. Upon finishing our meal, we split for bed, and Axel laid next to me as I curled up on the various skins I had piled up to make a comfortable spot to sleep. Roxas watched us sadly, and I called him over. I had thought about it and decided to have Roxas come with us to the dream realm.

"Roxas, do you want to come with?" I asked, and he brightened up considerably.

"Yeah, I'd love that!" he chirped, and I smiled at him. He laid down next to me, getting comfortable, and I put on Naiya's old pendant. As soon as it was on, I fell asleep almost instantly.

X*X*X*X

I woke up in the misty forest I had grown familiar with all those years ago with Roxas and Axel in their dragon forms on either side of me. I gently woke them, and they quickly sat up and looked around, bewildered.

"Relax, it's the dream realm forest," I told them, and their tense postures relaxed slightly. I called out my father's name, trying to find out where he was. "Naiya! Naiya, it is I, Night, and I come with friends!" After a short pause, we heard a faint roar towards the North. I led the way to the temple, which was where I was certain Naiya was at. It sounded like he was that far, anyway. Roxas and Axel followed close behind me, looking around nervously.

"Night, how do you know your way around this place?" the blonde asked as we traveled.

"Easy, the dream realm is just like the Dragon Realms, only covered in mist and is always lit by the moon," I replied. "We're actually in the area that looks like my old territory, Diamond Clan Territory. There may be sleeping spirits, though, so try and keep it down."

The pair behind me nodded, and we continued on through the forest. Several times I heard a splash nearby and a little cackle, and I had a sneaking suspicion that we were being followed and watched.

I picked up the pace, eventually ending up in a dash through the forest until we skidded to a stop at the temple entrance. It was as glorious as ever, the dragon head shaped cave mouth wide open with rocks shaped like fangs lining the edge.

Where eyes would be, white diamonds glittered in the moon light, but I wasted no time in going inside. I didn't want to be followed anymore by whatever it was that was watching us, and I knew my friends felt the same. As soon as we entered, the splashes and cackles stopped, and I sighed in relief. I knew we were safe for now.

I led the way down the long hallway to the temple chambers, where the second generation leaders of the past would be waiting for us. Torch flames burst into life as we walked through, and eventually we entered the main chamber of the temple. Roxas and Axel had remained silent the entire time since I told them to, and I was proud of them. Anyway, I saw my father's glittering white diamond armor and scales at the head of the temple posts, and I bowed to him, my friends following suit after a moment's hesitation.

"Naiya, my father, it's good to see you again," I told him as I straightened up. He nodded to me with a slight smile.

"It is good to see you, too, my son. It has been far too long," he replied. He glanced at my companions. "Who are your friends? I have never seen these dragons in the Dragon Realms before. I have never seen those eyes on armored dragons before, either."

"Father, that's what I have come to explain," I said. "I also have questions, but they will wait until after I explain." I began to tell him about the dreams, how I met Roxas, how the scientists gave Roxas my powers, how Shadow and Axel became partners, and how we found them, etc. When I finished, he simply nodded.

"That explains everything, then," he murmured. "Including the recent goings on here…"

"Father, what do you mean?" I inquired. I had no clue what he was talking about.

"I assume you were followed here, yes?" he guessed, and I nodded. "Damn. They're getting bolder…"

"Who, Naiya?" I pressed, becoming frustrated. Naiya looked at me and sighed wearily.

"Roxas and Axel aren't the only ones like them, are they?" he asked suddenly.

"No, Kikoku, Denkou, Rose, and Sky each have a partner as well, and Rose is the only one we're not certain about yet, seeing as we still need to rescue her and her partner," I answered. "And there's another dragon I've never seen before that's partnered to Roxas's twin brother, Ventus. The dragon is male, and he looks like Shadow, only with white stripes as well as his black. He also has one black eye and one white eye." I noticed Naiya stiffened when I finished my description.

"Do you know his name?" my father asked. I shook my head, and he sighed again. "I have a feeling I might know who he is, but I want you to find out his name before I tell you."

"Um…okay…?" I said, confusion and suspicion in my voice. I shook my head to clear it, and then returned to the matter at hand. "Naiya, I came tonight because I wanted to find out the reason behind Axel gaining his true armor. He gained it just over a month ago, and we all three wanted to find out why."

"…He gained it because he found true love," Naiya answered after a pause. He turned to the redhead. "Axel, you showed you can provide for Roxas by being more than just a mate. You proved that no matter how hard things become, you'll stay by his side and continue to love him. You love him as a mate, a brother, and a friend. He's your only family now, and nothing can change that. That is why you gained your true armor." Axel bowed to him in respect.

"Thank you, Naiya," the redhead said gratefully.

"You're welcome, young one," my father replied. He looked over at Roxas and noticed his ever-so-slightly enlarged stomach, and smiled widely. "I see you're already expecting a young one. I shall keep the fledgling in my thoughts and prayers, for I know you are blessed with the child."

Roxas turned red slightly at my father's statement, and I chuckled. "Well, as far as leaving, I shall send you back from here, because it's too dangerous to leave the temple right now. Also, if you are to ever return, you will appear here. I can't have you getting harmed in your dreams. I bid you farewell, and good luck in your endeavors."

"Thank you again, Father," I told him, and bowed once more. The others copied my actions, and we soon disappeared from the dream world and ended back up in the tree house.

I smiled to myself as I got up and stretched, and I watched my friends with content. I knew Roxas and Axel were happy, but I also felt a slight nagging in the back of my mind. I knew something was wrong, but I also knew that Naiya was keeping it from me. I would find out eventually, but first, we would have to save Roxas and Zexion, and then save Ventus and his dragon partner. Ugh, this would be a long wait…

A/N: Okay, I finally finished updating this chapter! Now on to Chapter 12~ R&R, peeps!


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: All right, new chapter! I like how this is turning out so far! It's just hard because not many people are commenting, dammit! Please review the chapters so I know if I need to edit, peeps!

**In response to reviews:**

**Hetaliafan**: Well, the dragon isn't Xigbar. Remember, Xigbar isn't a dragon to begin with. The dragon in question is one of my OC's. I didn't make Axel just fire because I wanted him and Roxas to be similar in that aspect. Also, Axel's best with fire, even if he can use all of the elements. And besides, Zexion's quiet personality with my OC Rose's loud one? That's gonna be good. And technically, Sora is nature and earth, not just earth. My elements that I have Night and Shadow use, by the way, are nature, fire, water, lightning, earth, ice, wind, and finally light and darkness. Just so ya know. PM me if you have any more questions.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, Rose, Naito, Kidate, Rinsei, Kuragari, Shunketsu, Naiya, and Ishu.

The Experiment

Chapter 12

Morning came far too soon it felt like, and I groaned quietly as I rolled over in his nest. After Axel, Roxas, and I had returned from the dream realm, we had all gone back to our own respective beds. Axel and Roxas were curled up close to each other, and I watched happily. I knew they would be even happier once their child was born, and I honestly felt like a father, to be honest. I now kinda knew how Shadow had felt when Kikoku was expecting their children. I wondered idly how they were, and realized they must have been caring for their respective clans. I knew that Naito, my nephew who looked just like his father but with a hint of silver in his armor, was the one watching over Diamond Clan. On the other hand, his sisters, Kidate and Rinsei, were probably taking turns leading Emerald Clan. Those two looked exactly like their mother, only each a shade darker than Kikoku. They had an uncanny ability to finish the other's sentences, which actually freaked some people out when they first experienced the pair do this. I sadly remembered Kuragari, who had sided with darkness during our last adventure, which, now that I think about it, was more of a war than anything. The fourth child Shadow had had, and he had sacrificed himself during the final battle against Shadow and my grandfather. We never mentioned Kuragari if we could help it, and Shadow now told anyone who asked how many children he had that he only had three. Unless, that is, they already knew the real story.

"—ight. Night!" I snapped out of my thoughts as I heard my name being called. I raised my head quickly, looking about, startled.

"Huh?" I said intelligently. There was a snicker nearby the source of the first voice, and I realized Roxas had called my name while Axel laughed at me. I scowled at the redhead and asked Roxas in a pleasant tone, "What's up?"

"We were going to talk to you about the dream realm," the blonde answered. I crawled out of my nest and stretched like a cat, spreading my jaws wide as I yawned. I then jumped up and perched on the foot board of their bed.

"All right, what do you want to know?" I asked.

"Well, first of all, is Naiya your father, or is he like a god?" Roxas asked.

"Yes, he's Shadow and my father," I replied. "Shadow and I also have a half-sister from him as well, and her name is Shunketsu. Her mother was a light dragon, though, and not a typical armored dragon. That's a story for another time, though."

"Okay. Well, do you know what Naiya meant by the recent goings on in the dream realm?" Axel asked. I shrugged in reply and decided to go into more detail.

"Naiya has always been vague like that, never giving a completely straight answer," I explained. "I was honestly surprised that he gave you a straight answer as to why you gained your true armor, Axel. But the fact of the matter is that I need to share this with Shadow and see if he can try to visit our father and get some more information from him. I have a very bad feeling about this, as though it has to do with our past…"

"What are you talking about?" Roxas said, perplexed. I sighed heavily and shook my head slowly.

"Well, it has to do with Shadow and my grandfather, Ishu. He's Naiya's father as well, meaning we have direct a bloodline with him," I began. "Many centuries ago, back when the Dragon Realms weren't even around yet, five dragons were attempting to save their race. Humans were constantly killing our kind, slaying them out of revenge, spite, or just plain sport. The dragons killed the humans as they tried to fight back, but it was futile at times. Ishu, among with four others, chose to create a realm for dragons only, in a separate space of the universe. These five joined together and created the Dragon Realms by combining their elements. There was nature that created the forests, medicinal herbs, and fruit that we all require to survive, fire to create our sun and the occasional cleansing forest fire, water to form lakes which the fish live in, that we drink from, and to water the plants, lightning to create the storms that water the earth and to light the stormy night skies, earth to contain the plants, ice to bring winter and create new life for plants once it passed, wind to spread seeds for plants and create cooling breezes, and light and darkness to create good and evil. Ishu created the light and darkness of our realm, while the others put in their elements. Centuries after the Dragon Realms was created, I know that Ishu, along with the other creators, had been viciously slaughtered while Naiya was still in training with the other second generation future leaders. He wasn't ready to lead, so he fled, met Shunketsu's mother, and mated with her. He left after Shunketsu was born, knowing he had to return home. Shunketsu had hated him ever since.

"When Naiya came back to his home territory, he claimed his right as leader and ended up falling in true love with Shadow and my mother. He was slaughtered shortly before Shadow and I were born, along with the other second generation leaders. Shadow and I were the next in line to become the leaders of Diamond Clan, but I let Shadow take the role. I chose to remain as deputy. We still trained for our journey, but Shadow was pushed harder. And, well…you know the rest," I finished. "I just have a feeling that Ishu may still be trying to get to us from the very bottom pits of hell."

"I hope he doesn't…" Roxas murmured, and shuddered violently.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," Axel assured his mate, and embraced him tightly.

"Well, whatever is coming our way, I'm sure we can all handle it," I said positively. "We'll make it out of this mess for sure."

"Hey, are you guys awake yet?" Sky's voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, we're up, we were just talking!" I called back, and jumped off the bed's foot board. I motioned for the other two to follow, and they climbed out of their bed and began to get dressed. Roxas dressed in cream colored pants, a black tee-shirt, and a cream colored jacket with checkered patterns on the edges of the jacket's bottom and sleeves. He put on his silver "X" necklace and his checkered wristband, and then nodded to himself in satisfaction. Axel, on the other hand, just put on his black clothes that we had the hybrids wear for the assaults, following it with his trench coat. Once dressed, we joined the others at the fire pit. As we ate, I glanced at Shadow, grabbing his attention. He nodded minutely to me, and I knew that we would talk later. Later, as we ran to the river to train, I kept pace with Shadow and explained to him what had occurred in the dream realm with our father, and how I felt he was keeping something important from us. My brother agreed to see what he could find out, and I passed him the necklace I had been wearing. He took it and placed it around his own neck, nodding to himself. When we reached the river, Demyx quickly changed into his dragon form and proceeded to make a mad dash to the river, prepared to dive in head first. Sky caught him before he could make contact, but Demyx protested loudly.

"AWWW! Sky! I want to swim!" the sandy blonde whined. Sky laughed softly at his partner while Demyx just pouted. When the sapphire armored dragon landed, he dropped Demyx onto the ground, his friend landing none too gracefully. As Demyx picked himself back up, Sky watched with amusement dancing in his eyes. I watched the whole scene with interest, remembering when Sky had taught me for a while. He was still the same today as he was back then. Tough, calm exterior, but always proud and strong. I began to watch as Sky trained Demyx, the new hybrid catching on fast to his new techniques. I was actually quite impressed; Demyx was taking to his new life like a fish to water. He was loving every minute of his new life, especially while in the water. I watched Roxas as Demyx swam, and realized that Roxas wanted to swim, too. I walked over to him and Axel.

"Roxas, would you like to learn how to swim like Demyx is?" I offered, and his face lit up like that of a kid on Christmas morning.

"Yeah, I'd love to swim and learn some water techniques!" he said eagerly. Suddenly, his expression fell into one of sadness and anxiety. "But…what about the baby? I'm nervous to change into my dragon form because I don't know how it'll affect the baby…"

"Damn…Sorry, Roxas, I forgot," I told him softly. "I honestly don't know how it'll affect the baby, so let's play it safe and not have you shape-shift." Roxas nodded slowly, upset. I didn't blame him; it must be hard to not be able to run on all fours like he wants to, to feel the wind blow through his armor. I sighed and patted Roxas gently on his shoulder to sooth him, and it worked. He smiled at me as if to reassure me, and I smiled sadly back. Axel hugged him as if to reassure him as well, and Roxas gave him a genuine smile back. I smiled warmly at their displays of affection, and then walked away. The rest of the day passed quickly, and we left for home. We arrived at the tree houses right as the sun set, and when we gathered around the fire pit, Axel took the job of lighting the fire from me, but I couldn't help but laugh as he cackled manically from the fire lighting up. We all laughed at him, enjoying his happiness of his pyromaniac tendencies. It was nice, these moments when things seemed almost normal. Then again, there's no such thing as normal anywhere, so everyone and everything is always unique or special, maybe both. After we bid each other a good night, Roxas and Axel went to their own bed as I curled up in my nest. My thoughts flowed that night to Shadow and what he would hopefully find out from our father. Naiya was mysterious in more ways than one, but I hoped that he would actually give my brother straight answers. Whatever was going on, I had an awful feeling about it in the pit of my stomach, and I also felt it had something to do with Ishu.

A/N: All right, another chapter, completed! I know, I know, as far as whom the mystery dragon is, it's kind of vague. But he is one of my OC's, I swear! He's not a KH or FF character, so he has to be one of my dragons. Besides, this dragon is already paired with Ventus, so that's why, as I stated above, he's not Xigbar. Ventus is human; Xigbar is, too, so it wouldn't make sense. Sorry if it sounds like I'm being rude! Anyhoo, enjoy the chapter! Also, I'll try to post another chapter tonight, but I won't make any guarantees, seeing as I have a college midterm to study for tomorrow. I hate studying…ShadowDragon0421, out!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Yay, another chappie! I know, another time skip. I'm sorry if they annoy you, but I can't detail everything day by day, it's too much thinking! That and the story would go on forever if I did that. All right, by now it's winter in Twilight Town, and that means it's also time to rescue Rose! Damn, never mentioned where she and Zexion are being held…Ah well. It'll come up in here. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, Rose, Naiya, and Ishu.

The Experiment

Chapter 13

It was almost a month later that we were ready to save Rose and Zexion. During that time, Sora and Roxas each had growing stomachs, but of course, neither was close to their due dates. I knew that they were progressing faster than a normal human, but I still couldn't determine when the babies would be born. All I knew was that it would be tough on both of their bodies. Sora was farther along than Roxas, probably by about a week, maybe two. It was obvious that they were both pregnant, and their respective mates supported them with all the love and care they could. Demyx was shocked when he first found out about them even being capable of pregnancy, but he soon accepted it. Sky was easily able to accept it, too, seeing as he felt just about anything was possible with the mad scientists that had used our hybrid friends for experiments. During the time Demyx had been training, I had had Roxas and Sora cut back on their training, plus fed them more than the others. I wanted everything to go smoothly, and I even pulled Kikoku aside one night before bed to ask her how she felt about Sora's pregnancy. She assured me that she knew everything would be fine, and that she would even keep a close eye on Roxas for me if I would like. I accepted her offer, and ever since then, I noticed she had been making a bigger effort to chat with the blonde on a regular basis. The two were friendly with each other; then again, how could you not be friendly with the only female of our group so far? Kikoku was also the only mother of the group, and therefore knew how it felt to have children.

Anyway, the day to save Rose and Zexion had come, and Axel, Roxas, Sora, Riku, Denkou, and Shadow were staying behind to guard the tree house. Shadow, Denkou, Riku, and Axel were mainly there to protect Roxas and Sora and make sure they didn't do anything stupid. So our rescue team consisted of myself, Kikoku, Sky, and Demyx. Over half our number was staying behind, but I knew that it would be okay, seeing as The Land of Dragons was a place with very little security in their lab. They were situated high in the snowy mountains, where they felt they wouldn't be discovered or disturbed. We were gonna prove them dead wrong.

The four of us that were going that morning kept silent as we prepared our packs for the journey. It would be a short four-hour flight, but the main thing was that we would have to climb the mountain. It would be far to cold to fly, and it would just drain our energy that much faster without the thermals to provide us some gliding air. The plan was the same as usual: sneak in, hack the system, steal the files, free our friends, and flee, setting off the bomb once out of range. We weren't going to teleport unless necessary, but I had a feeling we might have to. We quietly bid the others farewell before taking flight, spreading our wings wide as we caught the early morning breeze and sun on us. I led the others higher into the clouds for cover, and even then led them above the clouds so we could relish in the feeling of the sun on our backs. I led them north to The Land of Dragons, and as we flew, I began to think. It was ironic that Rose and Zexion were being held there, considering this was a place that worshipped dragons, and yet they had one that was being treated terribly in their midst. I sighed quietly as we flew; my musings were starting to make me depressed. Well, close to four hours had passed, so I began to drop through the clouds and lead the group following me to the city. We landed in a snow covered area at the foot of the mountain, where an old, burned-down village was left to deteriorate even more. We took refuge in the cave on the outskirts of the village to keep warm and rest. Kikoku gathered wood for a fire, and I blew a small silver flame on it, causing it to spark and light up, and providing instant warmth. We all huddled around it, shivering slightly. I noticed Kikoku shivering the most, despite her internal flame, and I scooted closer to her. She cuddled up to my side gratefully, sighing in relief at my body heat. I had a higher temperature than most dragons, it seemed, and I was more tolerable of the cold as a result. I gave Sky and Demyx a stern look as if to say, 'This means nothing.' They nodded in understanding. They had no trouble in the cold, seeing as they could control water and ice, so therefore could withstand the snowy mountain's iciness. As the hours slowly ticked by, we waited by our fire, eating the occasional piece of fruit or meat we had packed so as to keep our strength up. Eventually, night settled in, and we put out the fire as we prepared to leave. Once finished repacking, we slunk out into the freezing night, heading out for the lab. I led the way, and we soon had snuck past their defenses, making our way straight for the heating duct. We crept on through, making our way to the control room. We silently disposed of the guards once there, and I began to hack away at their system. I needed no devices to aid me, and soon enough, I had hacked through their firewalls, security bridges, and whatnot. Once through, I made a small satisfied sound, and then unlocked all of the doors, the safe that held the keys and documents we needed, and disarmed all of the security devices. After I finished with the computer system, I snagged the keys and files from the safe, stuffing the files into my pack. We slid into the hallway, sneaking through the building to the lab entrance. I opened the door to the lab once there, and saw a young man about Roxas's height, only a little taller, with deep blue hair trying to fight off guards. He was slowly losing his fight, even with his new abilities over fire and massive strength. Our little group leapt into the fray, disposing of the guards swiftly, and unlocking the iron bonds that were fastened on the young man. I figured this was Zexion, so that meant Rose was nearby.

"Sky, search for Rose!" I ordered, and he nodded once, taking off to find her with his powerful senses. Demyx ran to Zexion and tried to calm him from his fury. His eyes were completely red with no whites or pupils, and his ruby-colored wings were flared in an attempt to make himself look bigger and more threatening.

"Zexy! Zexy, it's me, Demyx!" the sandy blonde cried to his friend. Sky soon ran back to us, Rose in his arms. Once she was in Zexion's sight, he started to calm, and before his eyes slid shut, I noticed them revert to a deep violet shade. Demyx caught him as he started to collapse. "Night, what's wrong with him?"

"Calm down, Demyx," I said soothingly. "He's just used a lot of energy. He needs to rest, so let's go home and let him and Rose rest."

"…Okay. Let's go, then!" he agreed. I stopped him and began to set up the bomb, situating the different pieces around the lab. Once I set them up, I called to the others and we fled the lab. We burst through the ceiling, taking care not to injure Zexion and Rose further, and flew back towards home. As we flew out of range, I pressed the button for the detonator, triggering the bomb. We felt the heat wave pass over us as we flew away. Demyx sniffled occasionally, worried about his lover. I noticed Sky would glance at Rose every few seconds as he carried her, and I knew he was extremely concerned about his mate's well-being. I sighed slightly, and Kikoku flew up to fly by my side. She and I were close friends, but obviously, we would never be close like Shadow was with her. After all, they're mates. Well, Kikoku was special, and very wise for a dragon of her age. Yes, we're all the same age, but she and Denkou seem to be the wisest of us all. I feel it's due to her being in herbal medicine and Denkou's ability to read the stars. Anyway, she flew next to me and we began a telepathic conversation.

_Night, there's something on your mind,_ she thought bluntly. Damn, she's cutting straight to the chase.

_Yeah…_I sighed. _I'm just worried about Roxas, Axel, Sora, Riku, and Ventus. And I'm especially curious about that dragon that Ven's partnered with. I have no clue who he his, but when I look at his picture, I get a sense of déjà vu. I don't get it!_

_Well, maybe Shadow has some answers. Maybe you should ask him,_ she suggested. _I remember you asking him to speak with your father once, but that was almost a month ago. I'm surprised he hasn't spoken to you about it._

_You're right…I don't know why he hasn't tried to tell me if he found anything out,_ I realized, looking at her with wide eyes. _I'll try to ask him when we get back and things have settled down._

_Good idea,_ she replied. _I'm sure talking to him will help you settle your thoughts, and solve some of this mystery. Maybe he just needs you to speak with Naiya as a pair. You know, both you and Shadow go to the dream realm together and speak with Naiya there._

_All right, I'll do that,_ I agreed. _Thanks Kikoku. You always have the right advice for anyone._ And with that, she nodded with a slight smile on her face, and I severed the connection. Soon enough, we made it home before dawn, and the moon was still out. I had a feeling the others would be asleep, but I was wrong. They were waiting for us, Roxas and Sora leaned against their respective mates. Shadow's and Denkou's eyes shone in the moonlight as we came close, watching us. Kikoku, as soon as she landed, began to race around, grabbing the medical supplies and herbs. Sky made water in a couple of bowls appear using his magic, and Kikoku thanked him quickly before continuing her work. She began to work on Rose first, seeing as her wounds were already starting to close. Rose, since she's a ruby armored dragon, has a faster healing rate than the rest of us. Her wounds start to close themselves before they can be treated sometimes, depending on the severity of the wounds. Kikoku started on her first because she wanted to prevent any infection of the wounds and keep the wounds from having to be reopened. She quickly treated the minor cuts and scratches, and then finished by cleaning the one gash she had on her right rear leg. The gash extended along her thigh, cutting across the muscle under her armor. Kikoku made a 'tsk' noise, and began to carefully clean the cut. Once finished, she spread her healing ointment on it and covered it with a strip of gauze, and then wrapped a bandage on her leg around the wound only. It was to make her walking less awkward and to use less bandages. Once finished, she darted over to Zexion and began her work on the blunette. She was swift in taking care of the young man, and soon enough, both dragon and hybrid were breathing evenly. Sky carefully picked Rose up and tucked her into his nest he was to share with her while Demyx cover Zexion with a thin blanket that was old and worn. I knew it was to keep him comfortable, but I also knew that Demyx chose that blanket because we weren't entirely certain as to how Zexion would react upon his awakening. Roxas approached me with Axel close behind him, questions in his eyes.

"Night, did something go wrong?" he asked quietly. I shook my head slightly.

"No, everything went smoothly, but I need to speak with Shadow," I told him just as quietly. He nodded in understanding.

"May we be a part of it? After all, we were there when Naiya started to speak of this whole ordeal," Roxas pointed out. I nodded briefly, and we walked over to Shadow. He watched my expression, and he knew what I wanted to know.

"I know you need to speak with me," he said as we approached. "Let's go to the main tree house." I led the way there, and once I had shut the door to Roxas, Axel, and my room, I turned to Shadow as the blonde and redhead settled on their bed.

"Okay, Shadow, I know something happened when you went to see Naiya, so spill," I said shortly. He sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Where do I start…?" he wondered idly. "All right, well, I entered the dream realm as usual, and when I found out Naiya was at the temple, I made my way there. As I ran, I knew I was being followed, but I didn't know what it was until I was attacked." I stared at him expectantly. "I was attacked by demons, Night. I had to use some of my light magic to fend them off. More came, but Naiya came to my aid and we fled to the temple. Once there, Naiya explained to me that Ishu is trying to make another rise to power." I gasped in horror.

"But…He can't! He's in the deepest pits of hell! And I thought he was sealed there, never to be able to be raised!" I cried out. Roxas and Axel watched from the bed, knowing who Ishu was and what he had done. They didn't know the full extent, but they knew enough. "How can he possibly be making a rise to power?"

"That's what I didn't understand," Shadow replied. "First, though, do you remember what happened to Ishu's body when we killed him?"

"Yeah, his body disappeared…into…the portal…to the…human…world…" I trailed off, knowing what was happening. I still decided to ask to confirm. "So…Naiya thinks someone is trying to use our experiment results to fuse Ishu's DNA with their own?"

"It would appear that way," Shadow answered. "He told me Ishu knows this and is trying to ensure he remains in control of the hybrid once fused. I don't know how he'll do it, but I know that he's capable. Remember, this is the dragon that helped create the Dragon Realms, our old home."

"We'll have to stop whomever's responsible before it's too late, then," Roxas said simply. Shadow jumped slightly, startled. He must have forgotten that the pair was there. "I know we'll need Ventus and his partner for this, as well. Speaking of which, did you find out who he is?"

"…No. But Naiya requested that the four of us see Naiya ourselves to find out," Shadow told him. I noticed Shadow's slight pause, and I had a feeling he was keeping something from us. Well, we would find out by tonight. I shrugged to myself, making it look like I was flexing my shoulders. Shadow glanced at me and added, "Night, get some sleep. You look exhausted. I'll have someone wake you once Rose or Zexion starts to wake up." I nodded once in agreement, and swiftly curled up in my nest, sighing in content. As I faded into unconsciousness, my mind continued to think about the mystery dragon, and how Ishu was planning another rise to power.

X*X*X*X

I was woken what felt like seconds later by Axel shaking me, and it was none too gentle, either. I hissed irritably, and he quickly backed off.

"Axel, what's wrong?" I asked groggily. He flashed me a sheepish grin.

"Rose is starting to awaken," he informed me. I groaned as I sat up, following that with a full body stretch and massive yawn.

"All right, all right, I'm on my way," I grumbled. I stood, feeling slightly dizzy from getting up too quickly, and made my way to Demyx and Sky's tree house. Once there, Rose sat up in Sky's nest, the latter of which was lying calmly next to her. She grinned when she saw me and I trotted over to my old friend.

"Night! It's so good to see you again!" she said cheerfully. "I just woke up, and everyone told me where I'm at, where Zexion's at, but they won't tell me much else. Can you?"

"Well, I would, but I want to wait until Zexion is awake first," I told her. "Also, keep close to him. He's going to freak when he wakes, more than likely, and you're the only one that will be able to calm him if he does."

"Um…okay…?" she agreed, confused. She cocked her head to the side when she approached her partner. "Something's off with him, I can feel it. What happened to him?" Demyx removed the blanket carefully from Zexion, and he slowly eased one of the blunette's fiery red wings out from under him. She gasped in shock, and her eyes widened when she noticed the matching tail. "What did those bastards do to him?" she snarled.

"The same as what happened to the rest of us," Sora said. Rose looked up and I noticed she saw his stomach, but she didn't say anything. I figured they must have already explained that part to her.

"Damn…I was supposed to protect him, and then this happens…" she growled. Sky stood by her side, rubbing her back in comfort.

"Rose, there was nothing we could do," he told her. "It happened to all of us, and of course, we had no warning beforehand, so we're just lucky that we have friends that freed us." She looked around, wondering who the first was.

"Roxas and I were the first to be experimented on, but we broke free," I told her. "We happened upon Shadow and Axel when we began our assault in Twilight Town, and it just went from there."

"Could you tell me more?" she asked. I shook my head. "Why not?"

"Zexion's about to awaken," Sky said suddenly, interrupting me. We all turned our attention to the blunette. Suddenly, he started to snarl, his eyes turning red like Rose's again. His wings and tail thrashed on the bed as he snarled, and Rose swiftly pinned him. Using her tail, she pinned his, and began to try and snap him out of it.

"Zexion, it's me, Rose! You're safe, and away from those evil people! Listen to me! Demyx and Sky are here, too! You need to calm yourself!" she shouted at him, and it worked. His thrashing slowed, and his wings splayed themselves out on the sides of the bed. His eyes slowly reverted to their normal deep violet, and his breathing evened out. He blinked and stared at Rose.

"Rose…what happened?" he asked quietly. He seemed like a quiet boy as things stood, and was almost on the emo side. He had bangs that covered his right eye, leaving him with his left eye being the visible one. I couldn't see the right eye anymore, but as long as he could see, that was what mattered.

"I have friends that will explain everything to us," she told him calmly. I was quite surprised by her tone, to say the least. Rose was normally a loud dragon, never really quiet unless she had to be. The way she spoke to Zexion, she almost sounded…motherly. "This is Night, and he and his partner Roxas know the most about what's been happening to us." She gestured to me, and then to Roxas. Roxas approached the bed, being careful of Zexion's judgment of Roxas's being pregnant. When Zexion saw Roxas's stomach, though, he seemed mildly interested. When Zexion had focused his attention on us, Roxas and I switched off back and forth, telling Zexion and Rose what had happened to all of us and how this had happened. We also explained the pregnancy factor and who had been affected.

"Zexion, I haven't looked at either yours or Demyx's files, so I have no clue if either of you were changed like that, but I'll check tonight," I added. "I'm sure that, no matter what, things will be fine." He nodded slowly, almost as though trying to reassure himself. After we finished our explanation, Rose and Zexion stared at us, shocked. Everyone else had become deathly silent, too, seeing as we told them about what Ishu was trying to do.

"He's seriously still trying to take over the human world?" Denkou asked in disbelief, breaking the silence. He snorted. "Even after killing him twice…"

"I don't get it!" Kikoku wailed. "He shouldn't be able to come back like this!"

"We'll do everything in our power to help you," Rose said. "No matter what it takes, we'll help you. Right Zexion?" She looked at her partner.

"…Yes. We will aid you to the best of our abilities," he agreed. I nodded in satisfaction, a slight smile on my face.

"Good. 'Cause you're starting training tomorrow," I informed the pair, and Zexion's one visible eye widened.

"What? Why?" he demanded.

"Zexion, we have one more friend to save, and he's Roxas's twin brother, Ventus. We also need to save his dragon partner," I informed him. "Besides, you'll need to train as much as possible to perfect your skills with fire and to control your strength."

"Oh…" he mumbled.

"Don't worry, Zexy! I'll be there for ya all the way!" Demyx assured his lover, grasping his hand. Zexion smiled ever so slightly, and tightened his grip on the sandy blonde's hand. After our explanation, we brought food into the tree house where the fire and water users would be living. While we ate, I thought about those files. Why _hadn't_ I looked through Demyx's yet? Normally I look through the newbies files the day after we get them home and they start training. I don't know why I had held off, but whatever. I decided to look at them in the morning. We all bid each other good night, and left to our respective rooms and beds/nests. I curled up, no thoughts running through my head this time.

A/N: Sorry this is a day late! I was busy playing a new game I got yesterday, and therefore made no time to bother with writing. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I'll hopefully have the next one up either today or tomorrow! Man, this is getting good so far! Also, this is my longest chapter yet! YAY! *breaks out the cider* I'm still not of legal age for drinking, people, so don't make me try! 'Sides, I don't want to drink, EVAH! Whatever…R&R, peeps! ShadowDragon0421, out!


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Here's the next chappie! God, I love writing…It's so much fun!

Night: That's only because you're a boring person with nothing to do but write on your laptop.

SD0421: HEY! I resent that! I love to play my games, too, not just type all day…

Night: Yeah, and you drool all over the AkuRoku fanfics…-_-

SD0421: That's my secret, Night! I created you, and I can cut you out of the story just like that!

Night: …Yeah, but you wouldn't, seeing as this whole thing is from my POV.

SD0421: Damn you…WTF is wrong with you?

Night: You made my best friend pregnant, and I still have no clue who that mystery dragon is! *bares fangs at me*

SD0421: *sweatdrops* You'll find out here, I swear! Roxas, disclaimer, please!

Roxas: She owns nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, Rose, Naiya, Shunketsu, Ishu, and Kesshi…Who's Kesshi?

SD0421: You'll find out…

The Experiment

Chapter 14

Dawn approached far too quickly for the next day, it felt like. I groaned quietly in the bed as I lay in between Roxas and Shadow. I felt way too tired and stiff to move, but I still tried to stand. I got up shakily, and then silently jumped onto the floor. I wandered over to the window, opening the glass slightly to allow the cool early morning breeze to blow in. As I perched on the windowsill, I played the events from our time in the dream realm back in my mind.

X*X*X*X

"_Naiya, you wished to see us?" I asked. He nodded, confirming my thoughts._

"_I have something to admit to you, Shadow and Night," he told us, looking a bit upset._

"_Naiya, if it's someone like Shunketsu again…" Shadow growled, trailing off with a scowl on his face. I understood his rage. He was completely mortified when we had found out about Shunketsu's true tie to us._

"_No, this has to do with your mystery dragon that is partnered to Roxas's twin brother, Ventus," he assured us. I perked my head up at that. "I know him. He's actually my brother, Kesshi."_

"_What?" I screeched. "How is that possible? I thought Ishu only had you!"_

"_Yes, he fathered me, but we're twins," he explained. "We're fraternal twins, just like you two, Shadow and Night. He takes after Ishu in his looks more than I do, but his personality is that of our mother's, whereas I took after our mother completely. So, basically Kesshi is your uncle."_

"…_What?" Shadow whispered is shock. I thought of something suddenly after Naiya said all of that._

"_Naiya, we don't have any cousins, do we?" I asked. Naiya shook his head and I sighed in relief._

"_Believe me, Night, he has never had a mate. He never wanted one. He was the more independent one of us," he answered. "Kesshi only doted on me, and showed his true feelings with me. He never showed them to our mother or to Ishu. He always had a bad feeling about Ishu, and when he found out I died at Ishu's hands, he knew he had been right all along."_

"_Why did he never try and find us?" Shadow asked._

"_I wouldn't know," Naiya said. "Maybe he felt ashamed of seeing his own nephews after so long being off in Loner Territory that he wasn't sure you'd want to see him."_

"_I'd like to meet him," I admitted quietly. I felt Shadow's and Naiya's gazes on me, and I almost cringed. "What I mean is that I'd like to give him a chance to get to know us."_

"_You're right, Night. We need to give him a chance to get to know us, and vice versa," Shadow agreed. We looked at Roxas and Axel, who had been listening to the conversation without giving any input._

"_We're with you guys all the way," they told us. We smiled at them gratefully._

"_Thank you," I told them, and they grinned. Naiya soon bid us farewell, and wished us luck on our adventure. He also told Roxas he wished for a healthy child for both him and Sora, to which Roxas blushed and thanked him. Once finished, we disappeared into the real world again._

X*X*X*X

Kesshi…No wonder he looked so familiar. He was a cross between Ishu's black armor and scales and Naiya's white armor and scales. The strange part was that even though he's Naiya's brother, he didn't have the same body structure as our father. He had the same body structure as Shadow and I, whereas Naiya looked like a dragon from legends, but with scales on his belly and armor everywhere else. I was surprised by that, but shrugged it off. As long as I knew who he was and he knew who we were, that's what mattered.

As the sun rose on the horizon, I sighed quietly to myself. It was nice to have peace for the time being, but I also thought about how we were going to live once this was all over. Who wanted to stay or go back to their old lives? Was there even a way to reverse the fusion of dragon and human genes like that? If so, how would it work, and what would the cost be? I growled under my breath; too many questions and too few of answers. Once the sun had risen above the horizon, I silently jumped off from the windowsill and began to wake the others. Roxas smiled at me warmly as I woke him gently while Axel just grunted to show that he was awake. Roxas leaned over and kissed him lightly, waking his lover further. The redhead soon sat up and embraced the blonde, wrapping his arms loosely around Roxas. I watched them with a slight smile on my face; Roxas and Axel were meant to be together, even if they weren't hybrids. If this had never happened, though, then they would never have met. In a strange way, I kind of have to thank fate for giving us our destiny. As my mother had once told me, "Everything happens for a reason for the better." I believe her, and always have. Anyway, I began to go around and wake the others, and they all gathered around the fire pit. I pulled out Demyx's and Zexion's files before I went to join them, deciding to find out if either of them could become pregnant. I scanned my eyes through the paperwork, and discovered that neither of them was capable. Well, I knew that Zexion was nervous of finding out the answer, and I felt it was because he didn't want a child or wasn't ready for one. This news would hopefully relax him. I joined the others and announced our plans for the day as we ate.

"Also, Demyx and Zexion, I read your guys' files," I added. "It seems that neither of you were altered in your genetics with the exception of the dragon genes."

"Meaning…?" Demyx asked, confused, and I almost face-palmed.

"Neither of you can become pregnant," I translated, dumbing it down. Man, how Sky put up with this clueless spaz I have no idea. After eating, we left for the clearing, everyone running in their normal forms. I wasn't going to dare risk having Roxas or Sora change into their dragon forms just to keep up with us. After all, that might mean something could possibly change for their unborn babies, and I didn't want any harm on them. As we approached the clearing, I began to set up the protective spells around it, mainly as a preventative measure against Rose and Zexion's fire. Everyone but the fire-controlling pair settled along the edges of the clearing, while said pair stood in the center. I walked over to them, calling Demyx over as I did so. I decided to have Demyx show Zexion how to access his dragon form.

"Zexion, Rose is going to train you on how to control fire and control your new massive strength while Demyx will teach you how to access your dragon form," I told the blunette. He nodded in understanding, and Demyx began to explain to him how to find it and use it. The way Demyx was speaking, he sounded very serious, unlike his normal, happy-go-lucky self. I nodded to myself in satisfaction, knowing he was making a good mentor. As he explained, I noticed a pause in his words as they slowed, and I looked to see why he had stopped. He was staring at the sky, as was everyone else, so I followed their gazes. It was starting to snow. It was the first snowfall I had seen in a long time. Everyone watched the falling snow in amazement, and I knew that Rose was the only one used to it. Her territory's village is high up in the snowy mountains of the Dragon Realms, where there's a constant amount of deep snow. I remember the first time I had gone through there to meet Rose, and I fondly remembered bounding through the snow, just having fun. I also remembered my mentor yelling at me to stop fooling around and act my age, but I had ignored him, just having fun. Eventually, he had stopped and let me have my fun.

"Night? Hey, you in there? Anybody home…?" I heard Demyx's voice say. I snapped out of my musings and stared at him.

"Demyx, I'm alive, and perfectly fine," I told him. "I was just remembering the good times I had back in the Dragon Realms."

"Oh, okay then!" he said cheerfully. _Totally oblivious…_I thought to myself, my right eye starting to twitch ever so slightly. He obviously didn't realize he had interrupted my happy memories, but whatever. I turned my attention back to Rose, Zexion, and Demyx, the last of which who had just rejoined them. After a few minutes, Zexion nodded to Demyx and closed his eyes, concentrating. Suddenly, in a burst of flames, Zexion transformed into a dark blue armored dragon with red wings and his deep violet human eyes. He looked himself over, shocked.

"How does this work?" he wondered curiously, still amazed. I joined the group in the center at that moment.

"It's all magic based," I answered. "Since you gained Rose's genes, you now have access to magic based off of her. You can control fire, you have her massive strength, which you'll need to learn how to channel, and you have a dragon form that's more powerful than you in your normal human form. Make sense?"

"I think so…" he mumbled. "Night, you wouldn't happen to have a computer, would you?" he asked randomly.

"Um, yes. Why?" I replied. I had no idea why he needed a computer, seeing as he can't go into society the way he is now.

"I was wondering if there was some way I could help with computers, seeing as that was my specialty when I was still just human," he explained.

"Well, I'm the main hacker here, along with Roxas, but I'm sure I could always use the help," I told him. "Besides, we can teach each other some new tricks if need be."

"That works fine with me," Zexion agreed easily. When I had told Zexion that Roxas and I were the main hackers, I realized something. I realized that when we were to go and rescue Ventus and Kesshi, Roxas would want to come along with us. I don't want him to come, though, not while he's got a child on the way. Same with Sora, but he wasn't tied to Ventus and Kesshi like the Roxas, Shadow, and me. Axel would go with Roxas and Shadow, but that wasn't a big deal. The problem was trying to convince Roxas to stay behind with Axel, Sora, and Riku, along with another dragon to keep watch and protect the two who were expecting. I knew the only options were to either force Roxas to stay behind, or to wait until his baby was born to save Ventus and Kesshi. The latter of which would require us to wait for a few more months. I didn't want to stress Roxas out like that, but I also didn't want to upset him by telling him to wait to save his twin brother. I sighed heavily, and Roxas looked at me, knowing something was wrong. I motioned for him and Axel to follow me, and led them away from the clearing. The others didn't look at us as we left them, but I knew that they knew something was up. I launched myself airborne, and we flew back to the main tree house to talk. Upon reaching our room at home, I sat on the end of their bed as they settled themselves on the bed together. I drew in a deep breath, preparing myself for his reaction to my words.

"Roxas, I know that you want to come with us on Ventus and Kesshi's rescue," I began, and he visibly stiffened. Axel watched him carefully, making sure to keep him from stressing out. "The problem is that I don't want you to transform during your pregnancy, nor do I want you to come with during the rescue. Knowing how much you want to come with, I only have two options for you: either stay here with Sora, Riku, Axel, and Kikoku during the rescue, or wait until your pregnancy is over, the baby is born, and then have Kikoku, Sora, and Riku stay behind too watch them while the rest of us save Ven and Kesshi. What do you want to do?" Roxas stared at me for a long moment, and then tears began to trickle down his face. Axel held him close, trying to comfort his mate.

"It's just…hard…to decide…" Roxas sobbed into the redhead's shoulder. I sighed and went over to try and provide comfort as well.

"Roxas, you know as well as I do that we can't put you or your baby at risk, especially in the lab," I pointed out. "If the scientists see you how you are now, they'll have a fucking hay day! They'll want new information, and they'll experiment on you even more than they already have. That's the last thing I would ever want for you. I'm trying to keep you safe, just like I always swore I would."

"I know…but it's still…hard to choose," he mumbled, calming down slightly.

"Isn't it possible for me to protect him along with you if he were to come with while still pregnant?" Axel asked, finally speaking. I shook my head with a sigh.

"No, like I said before, if the lab techs or scientists catch wind of him being pregnant, they'll go nuts and become desperate," I reminded him. "People like them are always desperate for new information and a pregnant human and dragon hybrid would be perfect for that. That and when people become that desperate, things will become even more dangerous."

"I gotcha," Axel murmured, and looked at Roxas sadly. "Rox, do you want to wait and save Ven? Or would you rather the others save him?

"…I think…I'll…wait…" Roxas whispered, and began to cry again.

"I'm truly sorry, Roxas," I told him. "If I had realized before that this would complicate saving your brother, I would have done something sooner. I don't know what, but I would have tried to figure something out."

"What's passed is in the past, and what matters now is what lies in the future," Axel told us wisely. I smirked at his words, remembering my old mentor told me that once.

"Axel, thank you," Roxas mumbled from the redhead's chest. He chuckled slightly, making Roxas feel the rumble from his chest.

"Anytime. And Night is here for you, too, got it memorized?" he teased. Roxas snickered at the remark while I rolled my eyes.

"Well, looks like we'll be holed up here in the forest for a while," I said. "Might as well make the best of it. We'll have some fun instead of just training all the time."

"What do you mean?" Roxas asked, blinking his big blue eyes at me.

"I mean we'll take it easy for the most part," I answered. "We can probably celebrate Christmas, too, if you guys want to, that is." They stared at me for a moment, during which time I started to feel awkward. "What?"

"I just didn't expect that dragons celebrated Christmas," Axel told me with a perfectly straight face.

"Ah, but you forget that those of us who lived with humans now celebrated with them," I pointed out with a laugh. "Roxas would give me a small trinket to add to my collection of treasures every Christmas, and I would give him something that would mean something to him. I'll assume it was the same with Ventus and Kesshi. What about you and Shadow?"

"We would celebrate at the dinner table," Axel replied. "Shadow always got a nice hunk of meat from our table as well as some fresh fruit. When we moved out, I still kept tradition with the meat and fruit."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out this year, seeing as we couldn't last year…" Roxas said, trailing off, and smiled sadly.

"Sorry, Rox," I muttered, and then brightened up. "We'll do something special this year, just to make up for it! And the best part is that we can choose whether or not to go into town!"

"How's that gonna work if the others can't shape-shift?" Axel asked.

"Oh, you'll see," I sniggered. "It involves breaking some rules, though…"

"Wait, you mean they'll just steal?" he yelped. "That's awful!"

"Well, we don't exactly have money, nor can the others hide their tails and wings that easily," I pointed out. Axel sighed with my reasoning. Roxas already knew that we'd steal, seeing as he and I have stolen from places in the past to get some things we needed. We'd need something small, like say for example we'd need some different fruit to change things up a bit from what we would find in the forest. We'd wait until night fell, and then silently break into a grocery store and steal some new fruit that was nice and fresh. Once we had grabbed enough, we would slip out the same way we came in, and then return to the forest. I remembered how people had started to set up security cameras around their shops now, but they wouldn't help. After all, Axel, Shadow, Roxas, and I can become invisible during the night. Or at least, that's what it seems like. In the night, the shadows hide us perfectly, even if we're different colors, like Axel with his bright red hair, and when he's in dragon form, his armor. And the fact that we dart about so fast we're not seen helps, too.

"Okay, you've got a good point," the redhead admitted reluctantly. "It's just that I've stolen before, got caught, but was chosen by the scientists to be experimented on with Shadow when they saw us together. We weren't captured like you two and the others were."

"Damn, Ax, I'm sorry," I said. "I had no idea. I just assumed that you'd been captured like the rest of us. Sorry, man."

"Meh, it's okay now," he replied, shrugging. "I just don't want to get caught again. Besides, if I hadn't stolen in the first place, I never would have met you and Roxas, nor would I have met anyone else here."

"And I'm happy to have you," Roxas told him. "More than happy, I'm overjoyed that you're in my life."

"Aww, Roxy, I love you," the redhead chuckled. Roxas blushed at the nickname while I snickered.

"Let's go ahead and start with getting some research done, guys," I told them. "We'll need all the information we can get on this lab in Destiny Islands. It's the one with the largest amount of security, and therefore we'll need all of our resources that we've obtained so far. Meaning we'll have to divide people up at some point."

"So…what's the layout of the island, first of all?" Axel asked.

"That's where we'll start," I replied. "We'll look over a current map of the island, figure out the coordinates of the building, and then we'll make a plan from there. I'm not going into too many details now, seeing as the others will be here soon, but we'll continue tomorrow."

"Cool, sounds like a good plan to me," Axel agreed easily. The others arrived right after we finished, and we ate the last of the meat we had as well as fruit. I decided to announce my plans to everyone in the morning, so after we ate, we bid each other good night, went to bed, and fell asleep. I felt giddy with excitement at the prospect of stealing again, knowing that we would be better off without trying to go about it properly. Besides, it was kind of thrilling to be able to steal and know that you won't get caught for it. As I faded into sleep, I thought to myself, _This year's Christmas will be the best yet…_

A/N: Okay, I'm so sorry for posting this today rather than yesterday, but I was busy trying to pack for a weekend with my folks, and trying to do homework! Also, I was busy playing my new game I bought on Tuesday, haha. I finally found The World Ends With You after searching THREE Gamestops! I had to drive all over to find a used copy, which was hard! Anyhoo, I'll hopefully have the next chappie up by either tonight or tomorrow morning or sometime tomorrow.

Kesshi: Why aren't you saving Ventus and me yet?

SD0421: Did you not read the chapter? They'll save you after Roxas has his baby!

Kesshi: …Fuck…you…*growls irritably*

SD0421: :3 You know you care about me!

Kesshi: ….Whatever…I'm being emo right now, leave a message after the beep. *beep!*

SD0421: You'll be saved in the end, I promise! ShadowDragon0421, out!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Woot woot! Next chappie! Wow, this is getting better and better! Any thoughts on what the genders of the babies will be? I already know what they'll be, but give me your best guess of the gender and a name suggestion with it! I love to see what people can think of! K-k, Kesshi, please do the disclaimer!

Kesshi: I'm still pissed off with the authoress of this story who owns nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, Rose, and me. Why do I have to be owned?

SD0421: You're not the only one, so stop bitching about it!

Kesshi: …Fucking-A…

The Experiment

Chapter 15

Morning came far too quickly, _again_. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate mornings except for the sunrise part? Well, now you know. I got to my feet, stretching like a cat, spreading my jaws wide in a yawn. Once finished thoroughly stretching, I snuck out while it was still slightly dark to hunt and grab some fruit, seeing as we finished off the last of it the night prior. I slunk through the forest, catching plenty of small prey such as squirrels, rabbits, mice, thrushes, finches, and I even found a large buck. I hid the prey I could before going after the buck, and then swiftly darted around its sharp hooves and crunched my fangs straight on the jugular. Once it was dead, I gathered up the rest of my hidden catches and went back home, carrying the deer on my back. Upon reaching the tree house, I found everyone looking around anxiously for something.

"Hey, what's everyone looking for?" I asked when I landed by the entrance to my tree house. They all stared at me for a moment before Riku answered.

"We were looking for you," he answered.

"Yeah, we didn't know where you'd gone off to!" Sora chimed in. I grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, but I was trying to get some more food for us all," I told them, and dumped my catches in a pile by the fire pit. The others swarmed to it, shouting "Thanks" to me. "No problem!" I chuckled as everyone sat and ate. I soon joined them, grabbing a thrush and sitting with Axel, Roxas, and Shadow. I decided to announce my plans for celebrating Christmas to everyone this morning, and since I had already told Roxas and Axel about the idea and they approved, I was sure everyone else would. Even though stealing would be involved, I also knew they would be okay with that. I finished eating my thrush, and while everyone ate, I noticed the snow that had gathered outside, glittering in the morning light. I loved that sight every winter when it came. As our morning meal came to an end, I stood and announced my idea to everyone.

"Guys, I had an idea that I ran by Roxas and Axel yesterday, and they agreed that it was a good one. So, I decided to tell you that we're going to celebrate Christmas, even thought we're here in the forest," I told them. Sora's eyes began to shine immediately, Riku smirked at his lover's reaction, Shadow cast a knowing look at Kikoku, who returned the look, Denkou's eyes glittered with excitement, Rose and Sky grinned with their own eagerness, Demyx had an expression on his face similar to that of a kid in a candy shop, and Zexion looked almost indifferent, except for the tiniest hint of happiness in his visible eye. Axel gave Roxas an almost wolfish grin, to which the blonde blushed a deep crimson. "I take it that everyone approves of this?" I asked.

"Hells yes!" Denkou cried out, and pumped his fist excitedly.

"There's a slight catch, though," I added, and everyone stared at me. "If you want to find something from the town, you'll only be able to go after closing time at 10 pm, and you'll have to steal it. I'm sorry, but we don't have their kind of money, nor can we all take on completely human forms. Anyone other than Shadow, Roxas, Axel, and me can't hide their tails well enough to go into town. Besides, I know that the scientists and their higher ups will have undercover people searching for us, so we can't try to socialize. Sorry, guys, if that's a bit of a spoiler."

"Meh, I'm fine with it," Rose said easily. "Sky and I have stolen before, back before we found Demyx and Zexion."

"Same here, but before I found Riku," Denkou added.

"Count me in," Kikoku chimed in. "I need to get some more medical supplies, anyway, and I obviously can't buy them. Sora, could you help me while we go out for our own turn?"

"Sure thing, Kikoku. Anything to help you!" Sora agreed easily.

"So, I'm assuming we'll go in pairs and take turns for each night?" I asked everyone, and they all nodded. "Cool. Each pair will consist of one dragon and his or her partner. So, for example, Roxas and I will go the first night, Shadow and Axel the second, and so on. The order is determined by the order of each pair that was rescued. Will that work?" Everyone nodded again. "Perfect, we'll start tonight. Roxas, get plenty of sleep today, I don't want to overwork you and risk you getting hurt or too tired during the night while we're out."

"That's fine, I'm kinda tired as is," he replied. Axel cocked his head sideways in concern, and I decided to look him over after everyone else left. Shadow stuck around once the others took off to hunt without him, and I called Roxas over into our room. "What's up, Night?" he asked, sounding tired.

"I just want to see how you're progressing with your pregnancy," I answered, and proceeded to ask him some questions. "Have you been sleeping on your back?" He shook his head. "How well have you been sleeping?" He hesitated. "Roxas, you can tell me."

"Not too well," he admitted quietly, and Axel wrapped his arms lightly around his love, resting his head on the blonde's shoulder. I gave him a questioning look, and he replied with, "I'm just nervous about this whole pregnancy thing, and about even having a baby…"

"Roxas, why didn't you tell me sooner?" I asked. "If you wanted me to, I could have had Kikoku speak with you, seeing as she's had children. She doesn't know how it would work in your case, but I'm sure that she could help. You know that sleep is important for both your health and that of the baby's, so please take better care of yourself. Look, if it'll make you feel any better, I can make some herbal tea to help you sleep, and it tastes great."

"…All right," Roxas agreed. "I'm sorry; I just didn't know how to bring it up without worrying anyone."

"Well, you worried Axel and me by not telling, so please let me know if there's something bothering you, such as pain or something," I insisted. "We all want you to be okay once the baby is born, and we also want the baby itself to be okay."

"Thank you, Night," Axel told me gratefully.

"No sweat, we're all friends here," I replied, waving a hand dismissively. "And besides, Roxas's well-being is my number-one concern, seeing as he's under my protection."

"Yeah, you're right," Roxas mumbled. "I'll let you know if anything comes up, like pain or something along those lines. I promise."

"You better, or else I'll have to _punish_ you," Axel teased his blonde, and Roxas just blushed, embarrassed. I chuckled at my friend's reaction while he just threw a half-hearted glare my way.

"All right, all right, now you get some sleep, Roxas," I ordered. "I can't have you exhausted tonight while we go 'shopping.'"

"Okay," Roxas agreed easily, and he curled up in the blankets, cuddling up to his redhead. Soon enough, his breathing evened out and became deep, and we knew he was in deep sleep. As we did our research, Shadow looking over the blueprints for the lab I had printed off and copied onto appropriate blueprint paper, Axel began to speak to me in hushed tones, trying to make sure Roxas didn't wake up and hear him.

"What should I do for him as a Christmas gift, Night?" the redhead asked, seeming worried. "I don't know what he would like."

"I'm not quite certain myself, to be totally honest," I admitted, shrugging. "But just think about things, and I'm sure you'll think of something. However, I do know that he likes one-of-a-kind things. Even if it's something simple, he loves that kind of uniqueness. Hopefully that helps." Axel had watched me thoughtfully as I had spoken.

"Yeah, I think that does help," he finally said after a long pause. "You're right, I'll think of something."

"Good on ya, pal," I praised him with a light pat on the back. "Let me guess: you've already got something on your mind?"

"You know it!" he replied with a big grin. After that conversation ended, I began to come up with a list of things I wanted to get for when Roxas and I went on our excursion tonight. I knew I wanted to get something water or music-based for Demyx, a book or three for Zexion that I didn't already own, something enchanting for Rose, because she could stare at something like that for hours, possibly a rare fish delicacy for Sky, seeing as he loves fish, Denkou something shiny, Shadow and Kikoku would get a joint gift for the pair of them, Axel and Roxas the same kind of gift, only different, and Sora and Riku something joint gift related as well. As I wrote out my list I continued to notice out of the corner of my eye how Roxas was tossing and turning in his sleep. I sighed quietly, and Axel cast me a worried look.

"Don't worry, I'll wake him up here soon," I assured him as I glanced outside; the sun was almost finished setting. "After all, we'll be leaving soon. And try not to worry too much, Axel. I'll take good care of him."

"Please do. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him," he whispered. As the sun set, everyone arrived back with some manner of freshly killed prey on their backs, and Kikoku and Sora had gathered a bunch of fruit. They all placed their hauls into the respective piles, and I thanked them.

"Thanks for that, you guys," I told them. "We needed plenty of that, and hopefully that'll last us for another week."

"No sweat! Hunting in snow is my specialty," Rose replied. Kikoku came over to me and glanced at Roxas, who was still sleeping.

"I'm going to assume that he's not sleeping well?" she guessed.

"You'd assume correctly," I sighed. "He's worried about the whole pregnancy thing and having the baby later on. I told him you could talk to him if he wanted."

"That's no problem, I'll talk to him tomorrow after he gets some sleep," she agreed smoothly.

"Thank you, he'll be able to sleep better after a talk with you, I hope," I told her gratefully. "Also, I told him I'm going to make some of that herbal sleeping tea to help him sleep better."

"That should do the trick for him," she said, nodding. "I'll search for the right herbs while you're both gone tonight, but if I don't find any, he'll have to hold out for a couple of days until Sora and I go into town." I nodded in understanding and went over to my blonde friend to wake him.

"Roxas, it's time to go," I said softly, waking him gently. He slowly opened his big blue eyes, and yawned widely. I chuckled softly and added, "I'm going to prepare our packs for the stuff we find tonight." He nodded in understanding, and I left him with Axel while I used a bit of magic to expand the size of the inside of the packs we would be using to hold onto our finds. Soon after I finished, Roxas walked over to me, fully dressed for the cold. I noticed his clothes looked a bit tight, but that made sense, seeing as he's about two months along, and the baby seemed to be growing fast. Sora's baby was growing fast, too. I decided to pick up some larger clothes for both boys while out tonight, and I shared this with Roxas.

"Thank you, I feel kinda uncomfortable with tighter clothes on," he admitted, blushing. I snickered slightly, at least until he lightly slapped the back of my head. The blonde chuckled and began to put on his pack, and I followed suit. Once we finished preparing, Roxas kissed Axel deeply, and I bid the others farewell. We took off into the night sky, flapping our wings to gain altitude. Roxas's silver wings and tail glittered in the moonlight, as did my entire body. I heard my friend sigh in content, and I smiled crookedly, turning my head slightly to look at him.

"You missed flying, huh?" I guessed.

"Yeah, it feels good to have the moon shining above me with my wings wide open to soak it in," he answered, confirming my thoughts. I laughed in agreement, and we continued onward to the town. Upon reaching it, we landed on the nearest rooftop, folding our wings silently.

"Do you want to split up? Or would you rather we stick together?" I asked Roxas.

"Let's stay together. I don't want to end up fighting if something happens," he replied, shivering slightly at the thought. I nodded in agreement, and led the way to a department store, where I helped Roxas to pick out some larger, warm clothes for him and Sora. I also picked up the necessary supplies to make cloaks for everyone who was a hybrid. Roxas and Axel were the only two with them, Roxas of course having his own way back, and it seemed Shadow had made one for Axel, too, seeing as he wore his own when we rescued Kikoku and Sora. I stuffed the supplies into my pack, and I noticed Roxas grabbing some books nearby. As I watched, I realized he must have been grabbing a book or two for Zexion. Once he finished, we wandered over to the exit, ready to leave. Upon reaching the roof, it seemed like almost all hell broke loose. Sirens went off around the building, and we quickly looked at each other, panic written all over our faces. We launched ourselves off the roof, taking cover in the night clouds for fear of being discovered. Once the sirens died down, we flew off to another part of town, where all the mom-and-pop shops were at. Even though I hated stealing from these places, we didn't have much of a choice. We couldn't return to the main part of thee town, or else we would get caught. We slipped in and out of several stores, and I found gifts for everyone, even the joint gifts I had decided upon. It was hard with Sky's fish, though; I didn't know how to keep him from finding it. Then I realized I could freeze it solid and he would never smell it. I decided upon that course of action, and once the deed was done, we were finished for the night. Roxas and I hung out on the clock tower for a bit, each of us eating a sea-salt ice cream. We hadn't done that in a long time, it felt like. Roxas was quick to eat his ice cream, and I finished mine shortly after. When we finished, I gave Roxas a genuinely satisfied smile, which he returned, and then we left for home. Axel was still up when we got home, waiting for his mate. He sighed with relief when he saw us, and embraced Roxas lightly around his waist so as not to hurt the baby. Kikoku appeared in our room as well, and she smiled gently at Roxas.

"Roxas, I found the herbs for the sleeping tea," she told him. "It should help you to sleep better, so drink up, please."

"Thanks, I'm really tired of being tired," he said, and she giggled. He began to drink the tea, and when he finished, he looked almost dead on his feet. Axel picked him up, bridal style, but not without some sort of protest from the blonde. "Axel, I can walk on my own!" he grumbled tiredly.

"No way, I'm not risking you passing out with just one step," he replied with a cat-like grin. Roxas gave in and allowed himself to be carried to their bed, where Axel gently laid him down and crawled in with his blonde lover. Soon they were both asleep, and I thanked Kikoku again for her help.

"It was no problem," she assured me, waving a hand dismissively. "It's my job to help out with anything medical, anyway."

"Still, though, you're great at it," I replied.

"Flattery will get you nowhere," she retorted, laughing lightly. I laughed with her, and after bidding each other good night, we parted to our own nests. I curled up in my nest, smiling slightly at the thought of how Roxas and Axel would react to my gift for them. The same thoughts went for Shadow and Kikoku as well as Sora and Riku. I sighed in content, satisfied my work wouldn't go to waste as I drifted off to sleep.

A/N: I am soooo sorry I posted this later than promised! I had a good weekend with my mom, and got busy with reading new fanfics yesterday, so…yeah. I'M SO SORRY! Anyhoo, I'm going to make the next chapter the Christmas one, I think. Either chapter 16 or 17 if I can. Wish me luck! R&R, peeps!


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Yay, here's to another chappie! Damn, had some writer's block for the last chapter for a bit there, hopefully it won't happen again! Hmmm…who should do the disclaimer this time…? AHA! Zexion, disclaimer, please!

Zexion: Dammit…All right, ShadowDragon0421 owns nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, and Rose. There, happy?

Me: Indeed! Now go be angsty!

Zexion: …What…?

Me: …Never mind…I'm having an ADHD moment again, hehe…

The Experiment

Chapter 16

The next couple of weeks passed by quickly, and the whole time Axel seemed to be busy off doing something on his own during the day. When asked about it, he would only answer with, "You'll see come Christmas." Soon enough, though, it was Christmas Eve, and everyone had gotten their presents for each other. Kikoku had taken the liberty of making a large pine tree grow in the main tree house's living room, and it was perfect. Denkou used his lightning combined with Shadow's light and Rose's fire to make beautiful lights around the tree, while Sky made icicles that wouldn't melt hang from several branches. I used my own light to make a star that glowed at the top of the tree, while the hybrids snitched ornaments from some stores and hung them on the tree, too. Once Christmas Eve came along, I already had everyone's gifts wrapped, and the hybrids' trench coats were made. I planned to give them out this evening before bed, kind of like an anticipation sort of thing. Axel seemed to be fully prepared with his gift, seeing as he only left briefly today, and returned shortly after with something small and wrapped in gold and red wrapping paper, with a blue and green bow on top. As the evening approached, I pulled out the hybrids' gifts as everyone gathered around the fireplace near the tree. I handed each one their wrapped trench coats, and placed everyone else's gifts under the tree. The dragons, Axel, and Roxas knew what the others got, but of course hadn't said anything. They knew they each needed one, anyway. I had already given Sora his larger clothes, and he had thanked me profusely when he got them. As they held their gifts, I settled myself in Roxas's lap, and he rubbed my head in a relaxing way.

"Go ahead, guys. You can open only these tonight, and then the rest tomorrow," I told them with a laugh. Demyx tore into his gift, as did Sora, while Riku and Zexion carefully pulled the wrapping paper off from theirs. Upon beating the blonde in opening his gift, Sora cried out excitedly, holding his up. The other three held theirs up as well, staring at them in awe. Each of their trench coats looked exactly alike, with the exception of the sizes and the fact that each one came with a pendant necklace, each with a different gem on them. Sora's pendant had an emerald, Riku's a topaz, Demyx's a sapphire, and Zexion's a ruby. They had a pendant to symbolize their connections to their dragon partners, and they seemed to love them.

"Night, thank you so much!" Sora squealed, holding his trench coat to his chest tightly. He held up his pendant, staring at it in the light from the tree. "Where did you get the gems, though?"

"First of all, the only the trench coats were my idea, not the pendants. Second, ask your partners," was all I said. Kikoku smiled at Sora, and showed him the tiny indent near her heart where a little piece of her armor had been taken out for the necklace. Riku stared at Denkou as he puffed out his own chest, showing the indent near his heart. Rose and Sky did the same with Zexion and Demyx, respectively. I pulled out two more small gifts, handing them to Axel and Roxas.

"Night…you shouldn't have…" Roxas murmured, staring at the small indent near my own heart.

"Shadow, you too?" Axel asked, staring near Shadow's heart where a barely visible indent was, too. We both nodded, and they carefully opened their gifts. Roxas gasped audibly, and pulled out a silver chain necklace with a silver "X" on it chain as its charm. Axel cried out with joy as he pulled out a silver chain necklace with a little red, silver, and black chakram charm on it. "I love these things! How'd you make it?"

"Just used some of my black armor to shape it, and where it's not black, that's where I painted," Shadow explained. "I almost messed it up, and I was afraid I'd have to start over and use another piece of armor. I didn't, thankfully enough." My brother laughed at his statement.

"Yours was easy, though, Roxas," I chimed in. "I just used the piece of my armor and shaped it into an 'X' shape." Roxas sniffed, and suddenly, he embraced me tightly, crying with tears of joy.

"Thank you so much, Night. It means so much to me," he whispered. Axel hugged Shadow, too, but not as tight or long as Roxas was hugging me. Once the blonde let go of me, I laughed lightly.

"It was nothing. Anything for you, Roxas," I told him, smiling slightly. I looked around at everyone, who had been watching the scene, amused. I cleared my throat. "All right, let's go to sleep, everyone. Also, one big thing I have to say: do _not_ wake anyone up before the sun begins to rise, no matter how bored or excited you are!" Everyone laughed loudly, knowing I was serious, but my warning just sounded silly. We all bid each other good night and left for our respective rooms to sleep. I had Roxas drink his tea before bed, and he knocked right out when he finished.

"Damn. The shit really works," Axel remarked. "Is it me, or is he falling asleep faster each night?"

"I think it's you," I teased. "Trust me, that's how the tea works. I would know, seeing as I created it. I just taught Kikoku and Shadow the recipe, and it works really well. I used to have sleeping problems back after the war in the Dragon Realms, and when I tried other remedies, they didn't work. So, I searched through all of our old herb books, and found out about how the essence of a certain flower can cause you to sleep. I searched further, and found out it was the snapdragon flower. I tried eating it, but it didn't work. Eventually, I made it into a tea, and that knocked me right out. I've slept perfectly ever since. I weaned myself off of it, which we'll have to do with Roxas as well, but once he stops drinking it altogether, he'll sleep as normally as he did back before he got pregnant."

"So…he's going to have problems when we wean him off of it, I assume?" Axel guessed, and I nodded. "What kind of problems will occur?"

"He may have them, he may not, everyone is different," I told him. "But just try to watch for any discomfort he may have, and don't wake him if he has a nightmare. If he does have one, just keep him still, but don't wake him, or else he'll freak out." Axel nodded in understanding. "Well, that's enough talk, let's sleep."

"All right. Good night, Night," the redhead agreed. I curled up in my nest, falling asleep quickly.

X*X*X*X

I woke the next morning to Roxas shaking me awake. I cracked open my eyes and stared at him, but upon seeing the excitement in his eyes and written all over his face, I laughed. He stopped shaking me and watched me, confused.

"Your face, it's too funny!" I laughed, and rolled out of my nest, landing with a small _thud_ on the floor. As soon as I hit the floor, Roxas burst out laughing as well, and soon we heard Axel join in. After a few minutes, we sobered up enough to realize it was Christmas, and that the sun was up. A few seconds passed, and then it dawned on us; we needed to get out to the others, now. We scrambled out to the living room, where the others were already chatting while in a circle around the tree. They looked up at us as we burst through the door and joined them quickly.

"What were you three laughing so hard about in there?" Denkou asked, cocking his head to the side in a confused manner.

"Oh, just the fact that Roxas had a funny look on his face, and then I fell out of my nest," I replied smoothly. They all stared at me except for Roxas and Axel, and then they all roared with laughter as well. After a couple minutes of this, they sobered up, Demyx and Sora having the hardest time trying to catch their breath. I rolled my eyes at them as their chests heaved with the effort. Once everyone was calm again, I walked over to the tree and settled down by the gifts. "Okay, who wants theirs given first?" I asked.

"Give out mine first!" Denkou shrieked, and I stifled a laugh as his golden eyes widened with excitement.

"All right, everyone gets their gifts from Denkou first," I said. I pulled out the golden wrapped gifts, handing each person their appropriately labeled gift. I grabbed mine last, and allowed Riku to go first. He opened his gift like a normal person would, not tearing into it, but also not opening it like it would explode. When it was completely unwrapped, he held it up, showing us that Denkou had given him a golden cloak. My eyes widened.

"Denkou, you're giving him your lightning cloak?" I asked in shock.

"Yep. He needs the protection more than I would," Denkou said, and turned to Riku. "That lightning cloak protects you from the elements of lightning and in storms. Take good care of it." Riku nodded, completely serious, but then he beamed and thanked his friend.

"Me next!" Sora squealed, and he tore into his gift from Denkou next. He pulled out a pair of golden gloves and boots, and gasped in awe.

"Those are climbing gloves and running boots," Denkou told him. "They'll protect your hands when you climb anything solid, and the boots keep your feet comfortable while you run at high speeds. Seeing as you're a hybrid from Kikoku, you'll need 'em."

"Thank you, Denkou!" Sora cried out, and hugged Denkou tightly.

"Sora…can't…breathe…!" Denkou struggled to say. The brunette quickly let go of the topaz dragon, and he gasped in air, chest heaving. I watched his reaction, amused.

"Jeez, Denkou, you're such a drama king," I teased, and he gave me a half-hearted glare.

"Me and Zexy next!" Demyx said eagerly, and Zexion face-palmed upon hearing the nickname.

"Please don't call me that…" Zexion grumbled to his boyfriend. Demyx grinned sheepishly at the blunette, but still tore into his gift at the same time Zexion started to open his own at a reasonable pace. Demyx cried out excitedly upon unwrapping his gift, which was a set of guitar picks, each made from a special kind of metal that wouldn't break, but also helped to make the music more pretty. At least, that's what Denkou told the sandy blonde. Zexion gawked at his gift from Denkou, and then turned his surprised visible eye to my friend. I noticed it was a book on mythology, namely dragons, but I had read that book before. Most of the stuff in there was true about us, but I didn't recognize the author's name. Oh well.

"Where did you find this?" he asked, still floored.

"That's my little secret for me to know and for you to never find out," Denkou replied smugly. We all laughed, even Zexion. Rose quickly growled as she tore into her present once we all calmed down. Sky followed suit, pulling off the wrapping paper from his in one swift movement. Rose shrieked happily as she held up Denkou's gift to her: a do-it-yourself bomb-making kit. I made a face of mock horror as she cackled maniacally, and the others exchanged looks that read, 'Dear lord, she's lost it.'

"Holy shit!" Sky yelped as he pulled out his gift from the wrapping paper. It was a huge fish, looking as though it was freshly caught. Sky was famous for his love of fish, and this just helped to prove it.

"Thank you, Denkou!" the pair told him gratefully. Shadow and Kikoku went next, opening their gifts at the same time. Kikoku held up her gift, which was a new book with a list of herbs in it.

"Denkou, I needed this so badly! Thank you!" she said. Shadow grinned wildly at his gift; a crystal that was shaped into Shadow's likeness.

"Man, you're too good with this," my brother told his friend, and Denkou just gave him a knowing look. Axel and Roxas went next, and Axel cackled with delight as he opened his gift, revealing a lighter shaped like a dragon. He clicked it, and a large flame erupted from it, only vanishing once he released the trigger. Roxas rolled his eyes at his mate and continued opening his gift. He gasped with joy as he pulled out a soft-looking blanket, decorated with silver gems along the edges, and the center held a silver dragon as its picture.

"Denkou, Shadow's right; you're too good at this," Roxas whispered, and quickly wrapped the blanket around him and Axel. The redhead gave a thumbs-up to Denkou, to which the topaz armored dragon just grinned. As everyone focused on me, seeing as I was the last one to open my gift, I slowly opened it, driving Sora and Demyx up the wall, almost literally, with anticipation. I finished opening it, and gasped. Denkou had taken a picture of us when we were still in training and framed it in a gold and silver frame that had small topazes and pieces of silver on it.

"Denkou…Jeez, how do you know the right gift?" I asked softly, smiling brightly.

"It's easy, you just have to know your friends," he replied simply. I recovered from my initial shock and embraced my friend, thanking him profusely. "It's no big deal. We're best friends, plain as that. You and I both know that." He laughed as I let him go. I smiled again and placed my gift from Denkou above the fireplace, letting it hang there. Once I was satisfied that it wasn't crooked, I turned to the others.

"Who wants their gifts given out next?" I asked. It went on like this for the next few hours, and everyone got amazing gifts. Zexion had gotten a bunch of new books from everyone but me, seeing as I hadn't given out my gifts yet, Demyx got a spiked choker from Axel, music sheets from Roxas, a guitar from Sky, drums from Rose, a book filled with different songs and how to play them from Zexion, and basically music stuff from the others. Sky got plenty of fish to satisfy his stomach for at least a week from my friends, Rose got a lot of explosives from them as well, and Shadow got things that were all gem-based, seeing as he loved to add to his trove. Kikoku got new herb books and actual rare herbs for emergencies, Axel got a bunch of lighters for him to start a collection with, except for Roxas, who gave him a crystal heart that held a heart-shaped flame, and Roxas got beautiful, unique gifts from everyone except Axel, who had yet to give him his gift yet. Sora and Riku got gifts that were meant for the both of them, including a TV, a PS3, a 3DS, and several games for each. Denkou got a lot off shiny things for his collection of 'shinies.' I even got some good stuff. Kikoku had grown silver snapdragons that would never die for me, Shadow gave me our father's pendant, Roxas had made a silver dragon statue for me, Axel got me a new laptop with a flash drive, Rose had given me a neon sign that had a dragon engraved in it that glowed red, Sky got me a silver heart pendant necklace, Demyx and Zexion gave me a pocket watch with a red and blue dragon carved into it, and Sora and Riku gave me an emerald leaf with lightning bolts flashing around inside. Shadow also got a lot of spiritual things, which he was really into. Finally, Axel's turn to give Roxas his gift came.

"Roxas, you know how much I love you," he told the blonde. Roxas smiled, but cocked his head to the side, confused.

"I love you, too, Axel," he told his redhead. "But where's this going?" Axel had Roxas stand up, and the tall redhead got down on one knee, pulling out the wrapped box from yesterday morning from his pocket. He had Roxas open it, revealing a velvet-covered box. Axel gently took the box from Roxas and began to speak again.

"Roxas, I promise to love you to the end of time, for the rest of our immortal lives, no matter what. Will you marry me?" Axel asked Roxas, and the blonde gasped when he saw the ring. I caught a glimpse of it as the redhead had opened the box, and I was stunned; it was downright gorgeous. It was a ring with a silver band, and it contained blue, black, and white diamonds. In the center was the largest diamond, and it was the only white one. Inside the white diamond, flames flickered, and I stared, mesmerized.

"Y-yes, I will," Roxas whispered, tears in his eyes, and Axel slid the ring easily onto Roxas's left ring finger. Roxas gasped quietly as the ring slid on, and Axel cast him a puzzled look. "I-it's w-warm," the blonde stammered, and Axel beamed.

"That means I did it right, then," he told Roxas, and we all gave the redhead confused looks. "I was trying to make the ring feel warm on its own with the fire inside. I kept making it too hot, so I kept having to douse the flame and try again," he explained to us. "Seems I got it right this time." I grinned at Roxas, and he blushed, knowing everyone was staring at him. He embraced Axel tightly, being careful of his pregnant belly, and kissed him deeply.

"I love you too much for words right now," Roxas whispered when he pulled away, and Axel just smiled with all the happiness in the world on his face as he rested his head on the blonde's. After a few congratulations had been given from the rest of us, I began to hand out my gifts to everyone. Demyx squealed with glee as he finished unwrapping his large-sized gift, a beautiful sapphire-blue sitar with water droplets decorating it.

"How did you know I play the sitar?" he shrieked, and I smiled smugly at him.

"I actually heard you complaining how much you missed your sitar back home, and seeing as we couldn't get all of your things from your old home, I decided to get you a new one," I told him. "I actually did the décor myself, but I got it in town. Damn thing looked almost beaten up from misuse." I chuckled at the last statement. "But I fixed it up, good as new, and gave it new paint and décor. I'll assume by that un-manly squeal earlier that you love it?"

"Abso-freakin-lutely! I missed being able to play one!" he cried out, holding it carefully. Zexion stared at his gift from me, stunned into complete silence.

"I'll take your silence to mean that you like it?" I asked Zexion as he held up the lexicon I had given him. He shook his head slightly. "Love it?" Another head shake. "Okay, do you like it at all?"

"No, I adore it!" he said quickly, and beamed at me. He held the lexicon close to his chest, looking eager to start reading it. Rose opened her gift from me, and she immediately fell in love with it. I had made her a special lava lamp that contained actual fire instead of the fake lava in most lava lamps. She stared at it, mesmerized. Sky cried out excitedly, holding out the sapphire shaped like an ice crystal. He loved it, it seemed. I chuckled as Denkou opened his gift from me, revealing a new golden cloak for him. He quickly put it on, crying out with joy as it fit him perfectly. It wasn't special like his old one, but it did mean something, seeing as I had stuck some topazes on the edge along the bottom. Riku and Sora opened their joint gift from me, revealing a gold and green gem, made of emerald and topaz, which had the words 'Riku and Sora' engraved in the center. Sora's eyes began to fill with tears of joy, and Riku stared at me, stunned.

"Thank you, Night. It's beautiful," they told me in unison, and I laughed lightly.

"Of course! After all, I know how much you two love each other," I replied. Shadow and Kikoku opened their joint gift next, and it revealed two necklace boxes. I pointed to each one, telling them which one belonged to whom, and they carefully opened them. The pair gasped in awe at the necklaces inside each box. Kikoku's had a silver chain with a matching silver heart-shaped locket that had a small black diamond on it. Inside was a picture of her and Shadow in a tight embrace, nuzzling each other. Shadow's was similar in look and with a matching picture inside, only instead of a black diamond on the outside, his had an emerald. They both hugged me tight in thanks, and I returned the gesture, hugging them tightly back. Once I was released from the embrace, I turned to Roxas and Axel expectantly. They hesitated, glancing between each other and the box, and then pulled on it at the same time. They unwrapped it together, and once it was open, everyone but me gasped in awe. Their gift was heart-shaped black diamond with streaks of silver on it, and inside the diamond were a blue light and a green light close to each other. Engraved in the center of the heart were the words, 'Axel and Roxas, a pair of true lovers. May your love bring you each eternal happiness.' There was a long silent pause, during which I began to get nervous since no one was saying anything. Finally, Roxas spoke.

"Night…it's…beautiful…Thank you…" he whispered, tears of joy leaking from the corners of his eyes. Axel stared at me, stunned into silence.

"It's the best thing I could think of, to be honest," I admitted, shrugging. "I take it that you love it?"

"No Night, we adore it," Axel corrected, snapping out of his daze, and chuckled lightly. I smiled warmly at the pair, and everyone else smiled along with me. It was true bliss, knowing that everyone was now happy. Once we finished talking about our gifts and other random things, we cleaned up the wrapping paper and Rose burned it in the fireplace. After that, we ate a special breakfast of dragon fruit bread. Kikoku had made it, and we all loved it. Dragon fruit was everyone's favorite fruit, of course. I had actually acquired enough dragon fruit left over from Kikoku's baking to make a few bottles of my cider. We chatted all day until it came time to eat again, and we enjoyed my cider along with four freshly caught turkeys. It was hard to find the damn bird, but much easier to catch it. I had offered to catch it this year, and found the largest ones I could. When I had brought them back, everyone was very excited, and the way they dug into them as we ate showed that I had done good. Once night had come again, I helped Roxas and Axel set up their new blanket on the bed, and they quickly burrowed underneath it, cuddling. I grabbed the old blanket they had exchanged for the new one, and dragged it over to my own nest, curling up underneath it. I released a satisfied sigh as I began to drift off to sleep, hoping that the next few months to come would be easy for us all. I was hoping it would, even though Sora and Roxas were each expecting, but Roxas would have it harder because of the fear he felt for his twin brother. I frowned slightly, my eyes still closed, and knew Ventus and Kesshi would be okay, especially since Kesshi is Shadow and my uncle. I shrugged off the thoughts, allowing myself to drift off to sleep peacefully.

A/N: Cool, another chappie, DONE! I told you I could get the Christmas chapter done by this one or the next! Let me know what you think, please! R&R, peeps! Also, let me know if I should've done something different for the gifts for some of the gang. I did the best I could, and I'm pretty sure this works. Btw, the whole "joint gift" idea was something I did last Christmas for my own parents, and my mom started crying, she loved it that much. Remember, let me know your thoughts, people!


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Okay, chapter 17, here it is! Woot woot! Almost time to rescue Ventus and Kesshi, but that won't be for another chapter or two after this one. It's another time skip, obviously, but I can't detail each day or week, like I've said before. It takes up too much time, and I don't have a ton of it. Anyhoo, this is when Sora's baby is born, so now you get to find out what it looks like, the gender, and the name! EEEE! So freakin' EXCITED*! (*If anyone can guess what show and episode this line is from, I will love you forever! At least guess the show, though!)

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, and Rose.

The Experiment

Chapter 17

The next three months passed by rather quickly, and with each passing day, Sora's and Roxas's pregnant stomachs grew. Sora was two weeks further along than Roxas, but that didn't mean that things wouldn't happen around the same time. I was actually surprised by the rate at which their bellies grew, considering a normal human woman was pregnant for nine months, give or take a week or two. And I knew that when my nieces and nephews were born, it took a year from when Kikoku found out to the day they came into the world to know that our kind of dragons had to wait a year for a youngling to be born. So I didn't understand how Sora and Roxas were nearly ready by the time the almost five-month mark came around. Kikoku spoke with Roxas daily during those three months, and she helped to wean him off the sleeping tea. Axel had a hard time when Roxas had his nightmares, but with some of my help, we kept him from waking. As I had told Axel before, Roxas couldn't be woken up, or else he would freak out. I wasn't sure how, but I knew it wouldn't be pretty. I didn't want to risk him shape-shifting, so we just carefully pinned him to keep him from hurting himself, Axel, or even the baby. Sora had a relatively 'normal' pregnancy, I guess you could say. He had no problems, no complications, no pain, nothing. Eventually, though, as Kikoku examined him one morning, checking his progress, he suddenly sucked in a sharp breath of air, and nearly fell over if it hadn't been for Riku catching him.

"What's wrong? Sora? Sora!" Riku demanded of his mate. Kikoku gasped, and quickly yelled for Shadow, Roxas, and Axel. Shadow, Roxas, and Axel ran in, panicking, and she snapped at them as they froze in shock.

"Don't just stand there! He's about to have his baby! Get some blankets and cloths, _now_!" she snarled at them. I reacted first, shoving past my friends and brother to grab some old blankets. I darted past them again as I ran into Sora's room, where Riku and Kikoku were getting him propped up on his and Riku's bed. Sora was already gasping in pain, sweat beading on his forehead, and Riku wasn't helping. The silverette was freaking out, worried about his precious brunette. I almost slipped as I raced to Kikoku's aid to give her the blankets, but I thankfully caught myself before I hit the floor. I didn't even have to look to know that Sora's water had broken. I realized that, as Kikoku barked orders at Riku and the others, Sora had to have gained a birth canal while the baby was developing, or else he would never be able to get it out. Shadow suddenly raced past me, and when he came back, he had Kikoku's stash of medical herbs. I recognized one of them as one that could help with pain. Riku continued to hold Sora's hand, but the brunette's grip on the silverette was so tight, their knuckles were white. Axel and Roxas worked on warming plenty of water, just to soothe the pain on Sora's lower back. I grabbed a bowl of water that hadn't been warmed yet, and then raced over to Sora, a cloth in hand. I gave Riku and his mate each a reassuring smile as I handed the silverette the bowl and cloth. He understood, and began to wipe the sweat from Sora's forehead, dipping the cloth into the bowl of water occasionally to rinse off the sweat. I stepped out for a second to grab some more herbs, and discovered Denkou, Rose, Sky, Zexion, and Demyx all standing outside of his room anxiously.

"How is he?" Rose asked nervously.

"In a lot of pain, but that's why I'm getting more herbs for the pain," I told her.

"Can we help at all?" Denkou asked timidly. I didn't blame him; Kikoku, when she needed to deal with something major that required her expertise, was vicious and short-tempered. I pondered that for a moment, and came to a decision.

"I'll ask Kikoku when I go back in, but I can't make any guarantees," I told my friend. I fetched the necessary herbs, and then rushed past the group outside the door and handed them to the emerald dragon. She nodded once in thanks, and I decided to ask. "Kikoku, can any of the others help?"

"Denkou and Rose can come in, but the others have to stay out," she growled. "Denkou for Riku's sake, seeing as the guy looks ready to pass out any second now, and Rose because she's the only other female here that can comfort Sora." I nodded and went to the door, passing along Kikoku's message. Denkou burst into the room, immediately making his way to Riku to make sure the silverette didn't pass out. Roxas and Axel watched from the sidelines with Shadow, but the black dragon's dark eyes watched Kikoku's every move. I stayed by her side, trying to help as much as possible, and then Rose joined us.

"Kikoku, is there anything I can do?" the ruby dragon asked. Kikoku just grunted slightly as she went about preparing for the baby's arrival. She had set up several blankets under Sora's lower half, and they extended to the end of the bed, past the brunette's legs. Riku rubbed Sora's back in soothing circles as the poor brunette whimpered from the sheer agony of it all. I knew it would only get worse, but there was no need to voice the facts. I remembered reading about childbirth in an article on my laptop, and the article had said something about the pain only got worse with each contraction. I had also read that the best way to help with pain was with something called an 'epidural.' Apparently, this was an IV drip that went into the spine of the mother, and it provided some pain relief. Not complete, but what can you expect when it comes to human doctors? Kikoku uses herbs for a very good reason, and that's because they work. It's usually all or nothing, not somewhere in between, unless the patient wanted only slight relief for their ailment. Sora would obviously want complete pain relief, and Kikoku gave it to him. After a few more minutes of his cries and whimpers of pain and fear, she prepared a quick tea with some dried herbs Shadow and I had brought her. She ground up the leaves, and then used some of the warm water to make it a tea. She held the cup to Sora's lips.

"Drink," she ordered, and Denkou held the cup for him as the brunette drank, stopping occasionally to scream from his pain. Upon finishing, his screams died down to whimpers, but tears still flowed freely from his eyes. He stared at Riku with terror in his eyes, his mate's expression one of pained helplessness.

"Riku…I'm scared…" the brunette whispered. Riku's grip tightened even more on Sora's, each of their hands starting to turn white from the lack of blood flow.

"Don't be, I'm here with you," Riku told him, and kissed Sora on his forehead. Finally, after what felt like days later, but was really just a few hours, Kikoku stood from where she was at the end of the bed.

"Sora, it's time for you to start pushing. Are you ready?" she told him softly. She was still completely serious, but she softened up to her partner so she wouldn't stress him out more. The rest of us that were in the room stayed where we were, fearful of the emerald dragon's wrath, but also wanting to give them some space. Sora gulped, looking tired and still scared out of his mind.

"I guess…I'm as ready as I'll ever be," he panted as another contraction rolled through his body. She helped him into position, spreading his legs wide enough for the baby to be able to come out, and so it wasn't even more uncomfortable for Sora. Once he was prepped and Kikoku had settled herself in position, she ordered him to push. He pushed and leaned forward, screaming from the pure torture of it all, and when he fell back against the pillows he was propped up against, Riku wiped the sweat from his forehead with another cloth using his free hand.

"You can do this, Sora, I know you can," Riku told him confidently, but the silverette still looked scared out of his mind. Sora glanced at his mate, and then looked to Kikoku again for guidance. She waited for a bit, and then told him to push again. This process repeated itself almost a dozen times until she finally told him he could stop pushing. Sora panted hard, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath from screaming so hard. Riku wiped the cloth over his mate's forehead again, clearing the sweat off, and kissed him on the forehead again.

"Sora, you've done great, I'll pull it out from here," she told him, pride evident in her voice. She carefully eased their baby out from in between Sora's legs, and cut the umbilical cord with her claws. Once she had checked their baby over, she wrapped it in pink blankets, and then handed the tiny newborn to Sora and Riku to hold together. "Congratulations on your little girl, Sora and Riku," she told them. "What do you plan on naming her?"

There was no response from anyone for a while, seeing as we were all staring at the little girl in the new parents' arms. She had fuzzy hair that already seemed to spike very slightly, and the hair had two shades to it: brown and silver. It started out silver in the front, and ended with small brown spikes in the back. When she opened her eyes, they were each a different color: the right one was aqua, like Riku's, and the other was the same shade of blue as Sora's. Sora gasped with Riku when they saw her eyes, as did the rest of us that were crowded around the pair. After just gazing with pure adoration at their new daughter, the pair looked at each other and nodded.

"Her name is Soku," Sora told his partner. She nodded, smiling warmly at him, and hugged him loosely around the neck.

"I'm so proud of you, Sora," she whispered in his ear, and he started to cry again, but this time they were tears of joy. Roxas and Axel held each other close, I noticed, and as I watched them, I realized they were getting eager about their own baby being born. Soon enough, though, Kikoku shooed everyone out of the room except for Denkou and Riku, muttering something about 'it's getting too crowded in here…' or something like that. When the door shut behind us, the three outside immediately began to confront us.

"How is he?"

"Are they okay?"

"What happened?"

"Guys, they're both fine!" I finally snapped, effectively shutting them up. "They have a little girl, and they named her Soku. She's perfectly fine, and the new parents are speaking with Kikoku and Denkou." There was a simultaneous sigh from the anxious group, and Rose quickly embraced Sky, nuzzling him.

"I'm just happy that they're all okay now," she whispered to him. I turned to Roxas and Axel, who were still hugging each other.

"I hope you're ready for when your baby comes, guys," I told them. They looked at me, startled, but quickly recovered.

"Of course, but I'm scared about the pain," Roxas admitted shyly. Axel pulled his mate closer and gave him a quick, chaste kiss on his lips.

"Don't be. I'll be with you the whole time, no matter what," the redhead promised his blonde. Roxas smiled at Axel with all the love in the world as he leaned back into Axel's chest. After a few minutes of each pair of lovers cuddling, I decided to break it up.

"All right, guys," I began, and they snapped out of their dazes and stared at Denkou and me, both of us being the only single ones there. "Let's go to bed; it's late, and I'm sure the new parents would like us to stop standing outside their door." I snickered as all of their faces flushed with embarrassment. As I led the only parents-to-be left in our group back to out tree house and to our room, I inhaled deeply, breathing in deeply the scent of rain to come. I could tell it would rain either tonight or tomorrow, so I closed all of the windows and doors in our tree house to shelter it from the rain. I curled up in my nest as I listened to the loving pair in their bed kissing and murmuring 'I love you' to each other. I smiled when I caught a glimpse of Axel lovingly rubbing Roxas's swollen pregnant belly, and he even kissed him on his stomach, causing Roxas to giggle at his fiancé's actions. I was shocked to hear Roxas giggle, but I knew it meant he was truly and deeply in love with Axel, and I was happy that after so many years of growing up in a hard life with parents that didn't support him, he had found a better life as a hybrid. Even though it wasn't planned that his life would turn out this way, the blonde seemed to be making the best of things. I exhaled deeply, releasing a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, and soon fell asleep, knowing the pair less than ten feet from me was probably one of the happiest couples I had ever seen.

A/N: Okay, so I have to thank xxpunkgrlxx on DA for giving me permission to make Soku Sora and Riku's child, and Soku is completely hers. Now, who was surprised by Sora and Riku having a girl? And her name being Soku? No one? AWWWWW! Party poopers…Oh well! Even though no one even tried to guess, and I highly doubt anyone will try to guess what Roxas and Axel will have and what the baby's name will be, I'm still not telling! Of course, they already know what their name options are, so…yeah. Anyhoo, R&R, peeps, as usual! This is ShadowDragon0421, over and out for the night!


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Coolio to go, dudes! Here's chapter 18, and as you can guess, Roxas and Axel have their baby in this one! SQUEEE! I hope you all enjoy the chapter, because after this one, it'll be a short time skip, and then they'll go and save Ventus and Kesshi! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, and Rose.

The Experiment

Chapter 18

Well, it had been about eight days after Sora gave birth to Soku, and the new parents were in constant states of either complete bliss…or complete stress. Their daughter was well behaved during the day; quiet, adorable, and sweet. But when her bedtime came along, the brunette and silverette had a pain in the ass time trying to settle her down for bed. She didn't seem to want to sleep, even though she never took naps during the day. Soku would scream and cry when they tried to put her to bed, and until she was asleep, none of the rest of us could sleep, either. Finally, once she would fall asleep after much protest and wearing herself out, we could all sleep. Her hair seemed to grow out at a faster rate than a normal human child's, as did the rest of her body. Her hair now had more defined chocolate colored spikes like Sora's, and the silver part of her hair was growing out to look like Riku's. It was certainly strange, but then again, a guy having a child is different, anyway, as well as both parents being dragon and human hybrids. By now, she had matured to look about three weeks old, so she was still small, but she definitely had the dragon traits passed on to her. She had Sora's green wings and Riku's golden tail, and her eyes were each a different color when she got upset. Topaz gold for her right and emerald green for her left. She was definitely a unique little one, but she was certainly a cutie in everyone's eyes.

Anyway, it had been eight days since her birth, and it was close to dawn, around 4 AM. I was having a hard time trying to sleep for the first time in a couple of centuries, and all I could do to help myself to sleep was stare out the window at the moon. It shone brightly, being a full moon, and it relaxed me slightly. I felt almost ready to nod off again when I suddenly heard whimpers coming from Roxas and Axel's bed. I darted to Roxas's side of the bed, and discovered he was wide awake and in pain. I began to panic on the inside, but I kept my exterior calm as I asked him what was wrong.

"My stomach…it hurts!" he cried, tears flowing from his ocean blue eyes. Axel woke up at the sound of his mate in distress, and wrapped his arms around the blonde loosely.

"What's going on?" he whispered to me.

"I think he's going into labor," I told him, and his cat-like emerald eyes widened in shock.

"What? But…he still has six more days!" he gasped.

"Well, remember that human mothers can give birth a month or even two early," I reminded him. I shook my head rapidly, clearing it of the nonsense I was yapping about. "I'll go wake Kikoku, but you stay here with him and prop him up with pillows," I ordered. He nodded, completely serious now compared to his normal, laid-back, carefree disposition. I swiftly made my way to Shadow, Kikoku, Sora, Riku, and Soku's room, where the five were sleeping. I quietly crept over to Kikoku and gently woke her, shaking her lightly. She jumped slightly, startled, but when she saw it was just me, she relaxed slightly, but then glared at me.

"What?" she hissed.

"Roxas is in labor," I whispered, and her eyes widened. She immediately woke Shadow, who was sleeping next to her, and she told him what I had told her. He gasped quietly, and we left for the room I shared with the soon-to-be parents. Shadow dashed to Axel's side, trying to calm down his redheaded friend from his fear for Roxas. I hurried around the tree house with Kikoku, fetching blankets, rags, bowls for water, and pain-reducing herbs. She was back into serious mode again, just like with Sora, and this was evident by the concentrated expression she wore on her face and the way that she barked orders at Shadow and me. We did as she asked, preparing bowls of warm water, making the pain-reducing herbs into tea, and warming the blankets that were to be placed under the blonde's lower back. Upon finishing, Roxas soon began to cry out from the horrid pain. Suddenly, there was a tiny _pop_, and his water broke, spilling all over the bed. Poor Roxas seemed mortified about it, but as I rubbed soothing circles on his back and Axel allowed his hand to be crushed in Roxas's grip, I assured him that it could all be taken care of. After about an hour of the blonde's cries and screams echoing throughout the tree house, I heard a tentative knock on the door. I sighed heavily and had Shadow take my place as I went to answer it. I cracked the door open slightly, and saw it was Sora.

"What's going on?" he asked worriedly. I noticed Riku standing close behind him looking just as worried.

"Roxas is in labor, and his water broke," I told them. "He's been like this for about an hour now."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Riku offered.

"I don't think so," I replied. "Everything's already set up; it's now just a matter of keeping him comfortable and trying to wait it out." The pair nodded in understanding. "Look, if you want to, you can wait out here, but I would recommend that you just stay with Soku. She's probably awake and wondering where her parents are."

"Thank you, Night," Sora told me, and they decided to wait outside in the living room with Soku. I nodded and shut the door, and then zipped back over to Roxas, taking Shadow's place and rubbing Roxas's back again. As I rubbed, Kikoku handed a cup of the pain-reducing tea to me, and I had Roxas drink it. He stopped occasionally to cringe and whimper, and when he did, I decided to send a tiny bit of heat to my hand that was rubbing his back to help soothe him even more. Upon finishing the tea, he relaxed just the tiniest bit, and he sighed through his tears of pain. I increased the heat in my hand slightly, and his back muscles relaxed a bit more. I murmured words of comfort along with Axel as he cried out and occasionally screamed from the agony of it all. When he started screaming, though, I started to hear Demyx, Zexion, Rose, and Sky's voices outside of the room as they asked Sora and Riku what was going on. I listened as they explained, and then there was quiet as they all settled themselves in the living room, waiting for the baby to arrive. A few hours passed by, and I glanced at the clock; it read 7:55 in the morning. Roxas was looking worn out, and as Axel wiped the sweat from the poor blonde's forehead for the umpteenth time, Kikoku finally spoke from where she was at the end of the bed.

"Roxas, it's time to start pushing now," she told him gently. "Are you ready?" He nodded slightly, looking terrified. He gulped nervously, and increased his grip on Axel's already white hand. Kikoku told him to start, and he pushed, grunting slightly as he did so. She counted off ten seconds, and then Roxas stopped, releasing his held breath. I watched my best friend with anxious eyes as he repeated this process over the next several minutes.

"The head's out now, Roxas. Just the shoulders, one more good push," Kikoku finally said. Roxas gave it all he had in that last push, leaning forward and screaming with all his might as he pushed. Finally, there was a loud cry from the end of the bed, and we all looked to Kikoku, who was holding the baby. Axel watched with a proud gleam in his eyes, Roxas with tired but happy eyes, and I stared with combination of pride and happiness. I happened to glance at the clock again, and it read 8:13. It took a bit over four hours of Roxas being in labor, compared to Sora's time of about five hours. I was happy my blonde friend didn't suffer as long as Sora had had to, but it was still a long time. Kikoku cut the umbilical cord with her claws again, just like with Soku, and wrapped the tiny newborn up with a couple of blue blankets. I knew that this meant the new parents had a boy now. As we watched her, Kikoku finished checking him over, and finally brought him over for Roxas and Axel to hold together.

"Congratulations on your little boy, you two," she told them happily. "What are you going to name him?" The new parents exchanged a knowing look, as though they had already talked about it, and answered in unison.

"His name is Roxel," they said together, and we gazed down at the beautiful infant in their arms. His eyes were still squeezed tightly shut, but I took note that his hair, which was blonde in the front, was already starting to spike slightly forward in the front, like Roxas's, but the back, which was the exact same bright red as Axel's, spiked ever so slightly back. I knew it would grow out in time. When he finally opened his eyes to see his parents, we all noticed that he had different colors for his eyes, just like Soku's, but more obvious. His left eye was a piercing emerald green, and the other was a deep sapphire blue. He truly took after his parents in his looks, and I'm sure that as he grew up, he would have Roxas and Axel's mixed personality as well. I smiled brightly at the newborn, but didn't show my teeth. I didn't want to scar him already. That didn't seem to be an issue, though, seeing as he stared at his parents first, almost as though he was searching their faces for something. Roxas and Axel just gazed at him with the most loving eyes I had ever seen on anyone, and I knew they were truly happy now. After little Roxel had stared at his parents for a bit, he shifted his stare to look at me, and gave me that same searching look as he had his parents. I continued to smile warmly at him, still keeping my teeth hidden. He suddenly reached out and tried to grab my hand, and I let him. He was fast for a newborn; I was really surprised. Roxas laughed lightly at my shocked expression, and soon, Axel joined in. I chuckled with them, and soon, Roxel was giggling, too. Shadow and Kikoku even laughed with us. After a little bit more laughter, Roxel began to fall asleep, snuffling a bit as he snuggled deeper into his blue blankets. Axel began to take Roxel out of Roxas's arms, though, because the newborn needed to be put in his crib by their bed, and because the poor blonde looked like he was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion. Shadow, Axel, and I looked at each other and smiled about Roxas and Roxel. We watched as the little infant yawned widely, and our jaws dropped at the sight. Even though Roxel had just been born less than an hour ago, he had a full set of teeth, but his canines were longer and his incisors were sharper than normal. They were fangs. My jaw almost hit the floor. A newborn baby had fangs. He almost had freaking dragon teeth! Axel cast Kikoku a bewildered look, and she giggled at us.

"You honestly didn't think he would nurse, did you?" she asked, still sniggering at us. One look at our faces seemed to give her an answer. "Well, he needs to feed somehow, and dragons don't nurse, obviously. Soku has a full set of teeth, too. They both need to eat fresh, soft meat." Axel nodded in understanding.

"We'll just tell Roxas once he's awake," I whispered to the redhead, pointing at his exhausted mate who was slumped over, completely out cold. I smiled softly and began to shift the blonde into a more comfortable position in his and Axel's bed, but then I remembered the fact that his water broke in the bed. I shot the others a slightly panicked expression. "Where's he gonna sleep while we clean the bed?" I wondered aloud. Axel looked around, and then got an idea.

"How about we see if he can sleep in Sora and Riku's bed until then?" he suggested. I nodded in agreement; it was a good idea. Kikoku had recovered from her laughing fit by this time, so she disappeared out of our room and into the living room to both deliver the good news to everyone and ask for Sora and Riku's permission for Roxas to sleep there until the bed was all clean again. The brunette and silverette agreed, and I carried Roxas to their room, tucking him under the covers and making sure he was comfortable before I left to help Shadow clean the bed sheets, mattress, and the blankets. Meanwhile, Kikoku would show Axel how to feed Roxel properly. We used our water magic and a bit of fire to heat up the water we produced to clean everything, and then dried everything completely by drawing out all of the water and using some wind magic to finish the job. It was all done before noon, so we started to take everything back into the room and set it back up nice and neat. Once finished, I stole a glance at Axel, who was sitting in the rocking chair Kikoku had made for them around the same time she made Sora and Riku's, which was about a month ago. He was holding Roxel close to his chest, gently rocking him as the little one slept. I listened to the new father as he rocked his son, and the redhead was breathing small words of love and comfort in his son's ear. I smiled softly to myself, but quickly turned my attention back to helping to finish making the bed when Shadow flicked my forehead with his tail. Once the bed was made, I made my way to Sora and Riku's room, but was surprised to find them sitting on the bed with Roxas, who was awake. I approached slowly, not sure what was going on.

"Roxas? Are you okay?" I asked quietly, so as not to startle him. He looked up with tears in his eyes, but they were tears of joy, not sadness. He nodded slightly, and when I got closer, he hugged me.

"I'm just so happy that I got to have Axel in my life in the first place, and now I have Roxel, too," he whispered to me. I could tell there was something bothering him, so I decided to ask.

"I know, Roxas. Is there something else, though?" I told him. He pulled back a bit, surprised, and then his expression became regretful.

"I just wish Ven had been here for it…" he mumbled. I should've known that's what it was. I pulled the blonde close again, and he hugged me tightly, not wanting to let go. That is, until I reminded him of a certain redhead and son. He tried to scramble out of bed, his tail thrashing, but I stopped him.

"Roxas, it's okay. Roxel's sleeping, anyway," I assured him, and he calmed down. We hurried back to his room, but not before thanking Riku and Sora. They just smiled in reply as we dashed out the door and made our way to our room. I shushed Roxas and opened the door quietly, but not without noticing the annoyed look the blonde gave me. I chuckled slightly, and we looked over to see Axel tucking Roxel into his crib that Kikoku had also made with the rocking chair. The redhead finished tucking in the little one, and slowly turned around. He noticed us and quickly darted over to Roxas without a sound. He kissed the confused blonde boy deeply, and when they finally broke apart, they were both panting. I snickered at that, earning an embarrassed look from Roxas while Axel gave his mate an almost wolfish grin. I merely rolled my eyes at his antics and looked outside; it was dark already, and time for us to all get some sleep.

"All right, you two," I started, and they looked at me. "Let's all get some sleep. We'll all need it, seeing as we don't know how well Roxel will sleep. Try to get as much as you can tonight." And on that note, I crawled into my own nest, tucking my nose into my tail and falling instantly asleep. Hey, can't blame me. I had had a long day…

A/N: Sweetness! Roxel has been born! Thanks goes to Jack666rulez on DA for the creation of Roxel in the first place, so I give credit where it's due. Thank you! All right, next chappie, Ventus and Kesshi are to be rescued! Thanks a bunch, readers! R&R, peoples. ShadowDragon0421, over and out!


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Okay, new chapter, woo! Now most of the gang is gonna go and save Ven and Kesshi! Also, I have like, zip to no reviews for the last chapter. *sobs in the emo corner and sulks* Anyhoo, please enjoy the chapter! Also, sorry about another short time skip!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, Rose, Naiya, Ishu, and Kesshi. Oh, and I own the laptop and flash drive that this series is produced and saved on.

The Experiment

Chapter 19

It was about another month later that we finally decided to put our plan to rescue Ventus and Kesshi from the last lab in Destiny Islands. The plan had been agreed on by everyone, even those few that were staying behind. Sora, Riku, and Kikoku were staying behind to care for Roxel and Soku, seeing as the young ones were too little to even consider bringing along, or to have stay home by themselves. The rest of us were going, and we would need all the necessary skills to make it in and save them. Shadow, Roxas, and I were the most determined to save them, seeing as this was his twin and Shadow and my uncle that we were gonna rescue. So, when dawn broke over the horizon, I woke the others that were going, and Kikoku woke with Shadow. We began to quietly go about and pack our things for the trip, and I noticed Rose packing some of her homemade bombs from that kit she had gotten for Christmas. I smirked slightly at that; she absolutely _loved_ her explosives. She was addicted to fire and anything that went _boom_. I was surprised she hadn't been partnered with Axel, but I'm sure there was good reason for it.

As Roxas, Axel, and I packed in our room, I heard a slight shuffle, followed by a tiny yawn, and I looked over at Roxel's crib to see a pair of green and blue eyes staring back at me, wide and alert. I chuckled softly and walked over to the little guy. Roxas noticed me, and he watched as I carefully tucked him back under his blankets, only covering his lower half so his dark silver wings could peak out above the blanket, and his matching tail poked out near his legs. When I had first gotten a glimpse of his wings, I was surprised they weren't two different colors. They were just a dark silver, and the same went with his tail. He was certainly a cute little guy. Once I had tucked him in, I hummed a lullaby I remember Shadow and my mother used to sing to us when we were little and would have nightmares. Her voice was so perfect as she sang that we would fall asleep shortly after she started, but that didn't stop me from having her teach it to me and my brother. I had it memorized, and as I hummed this lullaby to Roxel, his eyes started drifting closed again, until he was finally fast asleep. I smiled softly at the little one, and turned back to my friends, who were staring at me, mouths agape. I cocked my head to the side like a puppy, confused.

"What?" I asked.

"…I've never seen you like that, Night, that's all," Roxas told me quietly. I stared at him, surprised, and then I realized he was right.

"Well, I haven't actually done that since you were little," I replied. "You were too young to remember, that's all."

"Ah, okay. But what was that tune? I don't recognize it," Axel asked.

"It was a lullaby Shadow and my mother used to sing to us when we were little and would have either nightmares or a hard time sleeping," I explained. They both looked satisfied, so we hurried up and finished packing. I swiftly threw in the blueprints for the lab, a map of Destiny Islands, the bomb's equipment and detonator, my flash drive for my laptop, and some food. Before we left, I stopped my friends at the door and decided now was as good a time as ever to give them their weapons I had made from magic and extremely durable material. They each gave me a confused look.

"Guys, I have something for you each, and I want you both to know this is a just in case kind of thing," I told them, and summoned the pair of chakrams for Axel in one of my hands, and a pair of key-shaped blades in my other. The pair of Keyblades were different in looks, one being black and purple, the other being light silver with shades of yellow and blue on it. I held out the chakrams for Axel, and he took them eagerly, while Roxas was slightly more hesitant. They accepted them, and the weapons vanished.

"What are they for, Night?" Roxas asked. I sighed and slumped my shoulders forward slightly.

"Like I said, they're for just in case something happens," I began. "I made those in case of capture, so that you can summon them in case any of us are captured. You'll be able to break out using those, and I want you to save yourselves if it comes down to it. Roxel needs you, and that's what matters. The others already have their weapons, so they can break free, too, but don't worry about the rest of us if we're captured. Demyx got his at Christmas, as did Zexion, and I'm going to guess that Sora and Riku got theirs from Kikoku and Denkou, too." When they looked at me in confusion about Demyx and Zexion, I added, "Demyx's is his sitar, and Zexion's is the lexicon. Anyway, I just want to make sure you guys aren't captured again, and this was the best way to reassure myself and the others that it wouldn't happen."

"But…Night, what about you and the others?" Roxas pressed.

"I know we'll find a way out, no matter what," I tried to assure them. "Look, what matters in rescuing your twin brother and Kesshi. That's our mission, so let's finish this, all right?" They nodded slowly, exchanging nervous glances with each other. I knew it was because of what I had told them, but I was certain things would be okay. Once we had bid the others farewell, we took off into the sky, swiftly gaining altitude. It would be a two-day trip, seeing as it would easily take about fourteen hours to get to Destiny Islands. The plan was we were to make a short stop in the area closest to the islands, which was Traverse Town, and after some rest, we would take off again. Upon reaching Destiny Islands, we would take refuge in the small uninhabited island for the night and next day, and then begin our assault that night. After everything would be said and done, we were to fly out of blast range, detonate the bomb, and then teleport back home. Hopefully things would go smoothly…

X*X*X*X

We arrived in Traverse Town about ten hours later, and we landed in an area where there were literally no people. I had Roxas and Axel shape-shift into their old human forms, and they did, effectively hiding their tails and wings. The other two hybrids just took off with Rose, Sky, and Denkou, making their way to the place we had decided to hide in. Shadow and I shape-shifted next, my brother changing into a black cat, and I into a small, silver peregrine falcon (One of my fave birds of prey! XP). We perched on our respective friends' shoulders, Shadow on Axel's and I on Roxas's. We left into town, where the more populated areas were, and I used my beak to pull out a pouch with money in it from Roxas's pack. He gently took it from me as we approached some stores, and we bought some meat and fruit at different stalls. Since we still have some leftover cash, I allowed Roxas to buy a quick trinket for a sort of…keepsake, I guess you could say. Once we finished, we met back up with Axel and Shadow near the entrance where we had come in from. The redhead was wearing his black trench coat, and he had his hood up. His black boots tapped constantly, showing his impatience, and he kept glancing his emerald eyes around, searching for us. When we arrived and he spotted us, he seemed to visibly relax. Shadow's matching green cat eyes watched us as we approached as well, and when we got close enough, he let out a cheerful meow in greeting. I just remained silent, seeing as I couldn't make a sound or gesture of greeting in this form without being seen as a threat.

Roxas led the way to the makeshift hideout, Axel trailing along behind him. As we walked, I got the eerie sense of someone watching or following us, probably both. I glanced around, my golden falcon eyes searching, and suddenly, I saw it; a shadow darting about behind us, hiding in the shadows themselves. I let out a warning screech, clicking my beak as a threat. The shadow stopped, knowing it had been caught. The others followed my gaze until they saw it, too, and tensed. Shadow let out a cat growl, sounding almost like a wolverine, and I screeched again. Suddenly, as fast as the shadow leapt out, I reverted back to my normal form, as did Shadow, and we saw what it was as it tried to tackle me: a demon. I slashed my claws across its gnarled, red face as the beast tried to bite me, and swiftly followed it with a powerful kick. Shadow stayed back, keeping his guard up and keeping Roxas and Axel back. I snarled at the demon, which snarled right back, and it lunged at me. I swung my tail around, smashing into the demon like a baseball bat to a baseball, and sent it flying into a brick wall. It slid down, stunned, and I charged up my light magic. After a split second, I fired the attack, and the demon screeched in agony, and then vanished into nothing, leaving only a blood red smudge on the ground where it had been. As I calmed my breathing down from the adrenaline rush, Shadow and the others rushed over to me, panicking.

"Night! Are you okay?" Roxas demanded of me.

"Y-yeah…I'm…fine…" I panted, struggling to keep standing. Shadow gave me a once-over, and began to give out orders.

"Roxas, carry him to the hideout. Axel, you and I will carry the stuff," he said strictly, leaving no room for argument. Roxas simply nodded and picked me up, carrying me like someone would their pet cat; hind legs tucked into one arm, the other arm supporting my chest and arms. I struggled to stay awake as they ran to the hideout, but the jostling movement from their running was helping to keep me conscious. As soon as we burst through the door to the old barn we were going to hide at, I felt the others' worried gazes on me in the blonde's arms.

"What happened?" Denkou yelped, and I heard his claws scrabble on the wooden floorboards in his haste to get to me.

"We were attacked," Axel told them.

"By who?" Rose demanded.

"A demon…" Shadow answered, and my friends gasped while Demyx and Zexion exchanged confused looks.

"What do you mean?" Demyx asked, trying to clear the confusion. Shadow went into the explanation of what Naiya had told us about four or five months ago. When he finished, Demyx's jaw was practically to the floor in shock, while Zexion's one visible eye was wide with fear.

"So…Ishu is trying to get back to the human world?" Zexion asked in confirmation, and Shadow nodded.

"He wants revenge, and he'll stop at nothing to get it. I'm just surprised that Night noticed before I did that a demon was following us," Shadow murmured. Soon after he said that, I lost my hold on consciousness.

X*X*X*X

"Is he awake _now?_"

"No, not yet, you twit!"

"Hey!"

"Well, maybe if you would shut up, then I wouldn't call you that!"

"Would you both be quiet?"

"Hey, I think he's waking up!"

I groaned quietly as I began to surface back into reality. As I opened my eyes, the first thing that invaded my blurry vision was a pair of sea green eyes. I yelped in shock and tried to sit up, but the movement was too quick and I became dizzy.

"Demyx, back off! You're scaring him!" I heard Roxas's voice scold, and the owner of the eyes quickly backed away from me.

"Sorry…" the sandy blonde apologized, looking sheepish. My vision began to clear up after a few seconds of blinking, and I looked around. I was in the hideout, but I was lying on a makeshift bed of hay and blankets with one on top of me.

"What happened?" I asked, confused. The group gathered around me, looking worried.

"Night, don't you remember? You fought a demon, and then passed out when we came here after you killed it," Shadow reminded me, and it all came flooding back. I realized I hadn't used my magic in a while, and that's what had drained me so fast, just the fact I hadn't been using it regularly.

"…Yeah, I remember now," I murmured. "I think I know why I passed out." I ended up sharing my theory with them, and Shadow nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, that would do it," he agreed. I suddenly realized that I didn't know how long I'd been out for.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked hesitantly.

"…About seven hours…" Roxas mumbled. I yelped in horror, and quickly started to scramble out of the bed.

"We need to leave NOW!" I barked as I started to pack my things. The others quickly started to follow suit, and after that, we were airborne. I led the way, flapping my wings occasionally to gain speed, and the group copied me. The hybrids were in their dragon forms, even Roxas as Axel flew alongside him. He had been nervous about using his dragon form ever since finding out he was pregnant, and I didn't blame him. Even after Roxel was born, however, he was still hesitant, but the fact he now donned his honey-gold armor and silver wings in his dragon form showed he might be over it. We flew quickly through the sky, making our way to Destiny Islands. After a short three hour flight, the islands came into view, so we flew down and landed on the little island that was uninhabited. We rested for a bit before starting to set up small sleeping areas. I looked at the horizon; it was almost morning already. It was too soon to begin our mission, so we were going to prepare ourselves during the day and rest as much as possible to save our energy. Rose brought back some old driftwood and stacked it in a circle of rocks Denkou had set up for a fire. Sky had dug a shallow hole as well in the circle, and when Rose lit the wood, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the driftwood burned in pretty blue and green flames.

"It's from the sea salt," Sky explained. I still stared at the flames, mesmerized by the beauty. I curled up in the sand, being careful not to let any get under my armor, and closed my eyes, falling asleep.

X*X*X*X

I was gently woken by Roxas later on, and I glanced at the horizon; it was sunset. The sun looked like it was almost below the surface of the water, that's how late it was. I thanked Roxas and got up, shaking my body to rid myself of any sand clinging to my armor. The others looked ready to go, so I pulled out the blueprints and began to scan my eyes over them, memorizing every detail with one sweep of my eyes. When I finished, I began to give out directions to everyone, and they nodded in understanding. Getting up, I launched myself airborne, the rest of the group following except for Sky and Demyx, who dove into the ocean, swimming to the underside of the lab. They were going to destroy the control panel that kept iron inside the lab walls, and therefore rid the building of iron. Seeing as iron is the only thing that can ensnare us, that was a major job. We flew slowly, allowing the aquatic pair to complete their job before we started ours. Upon reaching the lab roof, Denkou went in through the air duct first and shorted out the power by using his magic to cut off the electricity that ran through the building. He jumped back out and I took the lead, making way to the control room inside the lab. When we reached the right vent, Rose slipped a couple of her bombs through the vent, snickering evilly as she did so. The fuses lit magically as they quietly hit the floor, and we immediately backed away from the vent to stay clear of the blast range. I hurriedly cast a charm to silence the explosions from anyone outside the room, and just in time. The bombs exploded a split second afterward, and the guards flew back, each one hitting the walls, severely burned and injured. As we dropped into the control room, Rose cackled maniacally.

"That was AWESOME!" she crowed, and everyone but Zexion rolled their eyes. He just shrugged. I jumped into the computer chair as Denkou and Rose swiftly snapped each guard's neck, effectively finishing them off. I typed up a storm, and plugged in my flash drive with my tail as I typed. I saved Ventus's and Kesshi's files on there, and ejected the flash drive when they had finished saving on there. I yanked it out and continued typing as though nothing had happened, hacking through the firewalls and security gates they had in their system. After a few minutes of typing, Sky and Demyx joined us, dropping through the vent, dripping wet. They gave me a thumb's up, and I nodded in acknowledgment. Soon enough, I came through their system and unlocked all doors in the lab and building itself, including the safe door that contained the keys to the cages and the paper copies of Ventus's and Kesshi's files. When I finished that, I quickly erased all evidence of our being here on camera, and then shut down the cameras themselves. I jumped out from the computer chair, snagged the keys and files from the safe, and made my way to the door, sneaking a peak through it. There wasn't a guard in sight, amazingly enough. I darted out, the others following me closely. When we got to the lab door, though, we were rushed by a swarm of them. I barked orders at the hybrids, yelling at them to fight off the guards with their weapons, seeing as these guards had iron chest plates on them. Roxas held out his hands, and in a burst of light in one hand, the light Keyblade appeared. I had called it Oathkeeper. In his other hand, Oblivion, the black Keyblade, appeared in a burst of darkness. Axel's chakrams appeared in his hands in a small burst of fire, Demyx's sitar in a burst of water, and Zexion's lexicon appeared in his hands with a flash of dark flames. They dispatched of the guards quickly while Rose, Sky, Denkou, Shadow, and I stayed back. We couldn't harm them without weapons, and our claws and fangs were our only weapons. Roxas slashed through them, Axel following through with his chakrams, while Demyx would literally bash guards over their heads with his sitar. Zexion was muttering spells as his attacks, and when he finished muttering, several dark, flaming portals appeared and dragged the guards down into the never ending darkness. When they were all down for the count, the hybrids rejoined us and I unlocked the lab door. The hybrids quickly banished their weapons and transformed into their dragon forms, growling. We darted in and hid in various places, but saw poor Ventus strapped down on an operating table, Kesshi chained to another one nearby him. Ven was screaming in agony as suddenly, he gained wings, the left one black and the right one white, and a white tail with black stripes on it. He screamed again, but his scream soon turned into a roar as his transformation completed. The rage of his roar caused the building to shake violently, and some pieces of the ceiling fell to the floor. I began to hear one of the lab techs speaking to a higher up.

"Sir…I don't think we'll be able to make him into a complete dragon…He's completely resisted this whole time…" the lab tech whimpered to his superior. I heard the scientist he was speaking with scoff.

"Nonsense. He'll change whether he wants to or not," the scientist sneered. "Lord Ishu and Xemnas wish for this to happen, and this will prove that the technique works! As long as he doesn't escape like the others did, then this will work!" My jaw dropped open upon hearing Ishu's name, but my expression immediately darkened to righteous fury. I began to shake with rage, which Roxas soon noticed, seeing as he was right next to me. He was quivering with his own hatred as well, and we glanced at each other and nodded in mutual agreement without needing to speak. We began to creep forward, disregarding the group hiding nearby behind us, and we waited silently as we made our way behind the scientists. Our claws didn't even click on the metal floor as we snuck up behind them, we were that quiet. As we snuck closer to the group at the controls, I noticed Ventus's straps had changed to iron chains, effectively keeping him fastened to the operating table. Roxas's blue eyes glanced at me, and I didn't miss the flickers of silver in them. The fact his eyes were starting to turn silver meant he was about to lose his control over his rage. I couldn't do anything without giving us away and causing us to all be captured, though, so I just led a swift rush at the scientists, snarling when I made contact with the scientist who had scoffed the tech's warning earlier, a blonde with long, greasy hair and dull emerald eyes. I noticed the others that were hiding had also sprung into action as well, and all through the lab were the sounds of screams, snarls, flesh tearing, and bone snapping.

Out of nowhere, though, I was suddenly ripped from the scientist I had been busy slaughtering, and I struggled instinctively, only to find I couldn't move very much. I looked about wildly, panicking, and saw a guard holding me tight to his chest, where he had an iron chest plate on. I snarled furiously, and noticed the others being held that way. The remaining techs and scientists that we hadn't killed yet ran over with syringes filled with some kind of knock-out drug in them, and I went into full-blown panic mode. I screeched in terror, and my screech was echoed and overlapped by my friends' own screeches and screams.

Right before the needle could enter my skin under my armor, though, there was a huge explosion of silver light from Roxas, and the guards that had held him were gone. Roxas's armor was glowing brightly, and it was a mix of pale silver and honey gold, showing his true power. His eyes were completely silver with flecks of blue in them, and they shone brilliantly. Roxas let out a powerful roar, making the remaining scientists that were still standing to fly back and smash into the walls. His eyes flashed dangerously at the guards holding me and my friends, and they swiftly released us all and fled after a short moment's hesitation. Roxas snarled after them, but once they were gone, he collapsed and sank to the floor. I darted to his side and picked him up, about to haul him onto my back, but then he reverted to his hybrid form, so I couldn't carry him at his human size, it would be too awkward to try. Axel joined us and reverted to his hybrid form, so I handed my blonde friend to the redhead. He stood up straight, narrowing his eyes at something. I followed his gaze, and realized it was Ventus and Kesshi, each still strapped to their individual operating tables. I glanced at Axel, and he used one of his chakrams to slice through the iron chains on each of them. Kesshi, once freed, quickly pinned me, and I couldn't budge.

"Who are you?" he snarled in my face. I noticed the others move to help, but I stopped them.

"Don't move!" I barked at my friends. I fixed my gaze into Kesshi's eyes and spoke. "Kesshi, I am Night, twin brother of Shadow and son of Naiya, your brother." His lips, which were curled back to show the full extent of his fangs, lowered slightly in response to my words, and after a moment of staring at me, he gasped.

A/N: I know, I know, bad cliffhanger! I just needed to cut this off, though, seeing as it was going on to being eight pages, maybe nine pages, long! Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy the chapter, and I hope to be able to add the next chappie sometime today or tomorrow! Enjoy, Read, & Review, peeps!


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Okay, next chappie, woo hoo! Sorry about the bad cliffhanger last chapter, but I needed to shorten it because it was getting too long. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, too! Also, thanks to all of the faves I've gotten for this story so far, you guys rule!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Only the story, Night, Shadow, Kikoku, Denkou, Sky, Rose, and Kesshi.

The Experiment

Chapter 20

"Night? I had heard of you and your brother, but never saw either of you…" he breathed. He looked around and spotted Shadow. "Shadow?" Shadow joined us and bowed his head in greeting to our uncle. Kesshi released me from the ground and I stood up, shaking my body slightly like a dog to rid it of the dirt from the floor. I heard a whimper nearby, and saw Ventus cowering in the cowering, shielding himself with his wings and tucking his tail between his legs in fear. He felt threatened from all of the dragons and hybrids around him, and he still wasn't quite out of range from the transformation's power yet because his eyes were still like Kesshi's; one black and one white. His eyes were wide from terror, and his whole body trembled. Kesshi looked at him worriedly, and then back at Shadow and me.

"What happened to him? And why is he like this?" he asked.

"We can explain when we get back, but for now, you need to calm him down," I told him. "He'll pass out from exhaustion once you do, and then we can leave safely." Kesshi nodded and slowly approached Ven, murmuring words of comfort and promising he wouldn't hurt the new hybrid. Upon reaching Ven, Kesshi gently placed his hand on his shoulder, and the blonde passed out. Kesshi hauled Ven onto his shoulders, ready to get out of this place. I nodded to Rose, and she quickly unpacked the equipment for the bomb and began to set it up. I pulled out the detonator as she finished, and then led the way out to the halls. As we ran, however, I could hear Kesshi's breathing become harsher, and I knew he wouldn't last much longer. I slowed to a stop, the others copying my actions, and I went over to Kesshi.

"Kesshi, hand Ventus over to someone else," I told him, and he gave me a look like I was crazy. "Demyx or Zexion can carry him, but not you. You're losing energy, and you look like you're about to pass out. If that happens, we won't get very far from the blast radius of the bomb." He hesitated, and then carefully passed Ventus to Zexion. Zexion hefted the blonde on his shoulders and we took off again, soon reaching the doors to the outside. At the very last second, I veered away from the door when I heard the sirens of police cars and SWAT teams outside. Shadow caught up to me, looking confused.

"Night, what are we doing?" he demanded.

"Did you not hear the people outside?" I snapped. "We'll get caught if we don't leave through the roof! We'll have a better chance at evading the missiles from the helicopters if we fly away from the roof than trying to launch off from the ground."

"Gotcha," Shadow said, nodding once in understanding. Once we found a large enough air duct for everyone, I led the way inside, Axel following while still holding Roxas, then Shadow, Kesshi, Demyx, Sky, Rose, and finally Zexion holding Ventus. We hurried through the air duct to the rooftop, and launched ourselves airborne. As soon as we were out of range, I activated the bomb using the detonator, and we felt the slight heat wave from the bomb's blast radius as we flew to the small, uninhabited island from the night before. Upon landing, everyone gathered around Shadow and me, even Kesshi, who seemed to know what we were doing. Shadow and I focused our energy, and then released it, teleporting back to the forest in Twilight Town. Once we arrived at the bottom of the tree houses, we quickly flew up to the one Roxas, Axel, Roxel, and I shared. Sora, Riku, and Kikoku were waiting for us in the living room when we landed on the wooden floor of the tree house. They looked up, Sora holding Soku, Riku holding Roxel, and Kikoku froze in the middle of her pacing to look at us. Next to me, Kesshi tensed up and his eyes narrowed out of nervousness and suspicion, but I placed my tail on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. He relaxed his tense posture slightly, but his eyes remained narrowed in suspicion. Kikoku spotted Roxas in Axel's arms and Ventus on Zexion's shoulders, so she darted to get her medicinal herbs. She returned in another second, ready to begin her work. Zexion helped her to position Ventus on a fur rug on the floor, and Axel laid Roxas out on the couch. Before beginning, Kikoku looked back and forth, not sure who to start on.

"What happened to Roxas?" she asked me.

"He was able to tap into his true silver form, and I guess it drained him," I answered. "Start with Ventus first, though, Kikoku. He almost went into a panic attack earlier before we brought him back." The emerald dragon nodded once in understanding, and then pulled out the right herbs for healing Ven's wounds. I decided now was a good time to start the introductions to Kesshi.

"Kesshi, I want to introduce you to everyone who's been here with us for the past several months," I began, and he cast me a strange look I couldn't quite identify. Shrugging mentally, I continued, pointing to each person in turn. "That's Axel, and he's partnered with Shadow. There's Sora and Kikoku, Denkou and Riku, Demyx and Sky, and Rose and Zexion. I'm Roxas's partner, and you should know who he is to Ven." I cleared my throat, getting Kesshi's attention again after he had greeted everyone. I had to tell him about how Soku and Roxel came to be. "Kesshi, I'll tell you and Ventus the whole story once he's awake, but you need to meet two other members of the group, and how they came to be." I led him over to Sora and Riku, who were still holding the young ones. The older male dragon cast me a bewildered look as I led him over. Indicating the pair in the brunette's and silverette's arms, I spoke. "This is Sora and Riku's daughter, Soku, and Axel and Roxas's son, Roxel." He stared at me in complete and utter shock, and he looked at the two young hybrids.

"But…how?" he finally muttered after a long silence, the only sounds being Kikoku patching Ven up. "That's impossible for two males to have a child!" Axel wore a disgruntled look on his face that I noticed out of the corner of my eye. I sighed and decided to explain a bit.

"Roxas, when he and I were in the lab, was genetically altered to be able to become pregnant," I told him. "Don't ask me how; I just know that it was true. The same went for Sora, but no one else. The others are just as…normal as they could be with their situations." When Kesshi gave me another confused look, I looked at Axel and he flared his black wings and whipped his matching tail out to show my uncle what I meant. Kesshi stared at him, and then fixed his gaze on the pair standing by the door. Demyx grinned cheerfully and opened his ocean blue wings and flicked the tip of his tail a bit. Zexion did the same actions with his bright red wings and tail. Looking at Sora and Riku, Kesshi's eyes widened as they flared their own leafy-green and golden wings and flicked their tails a bit.

"I'm assuming Roxas…is like that, too?" he finally guessed after another long pause.

"Yeah, but he has my silver wings and tail," I answered. "Soku has one emerald wing and one topaz wing, and her tail is emerald with golden stripes. Roxel, on the other hand, has dark silver wings and a matching tail. Otherwise, the two just take after their parents' looks as humans." Kesshi seemed to be taking all of the information I had told him quite well, actually. He switched his stare from me to Ven, and spoke as he watched Kikoku go about her work of patching the blonde up.

"So…I'm also going to assume that Ventus is now like your friends?" he asked more than stated. I nodded and went into a little more depth.

"Yes, Ventus now has your traits as a dragon," I told him, confirming his question. "Anything that you're capable of, he can do now as well. He also has your wings, tail, and when in extremely heightened negative emotional states, such as anger or sadness, he'll have your eyes, too. The same goes with true power. That's what happened with Roxas earlier; he tapped into his silver dragon power, and hence showed it with his eyes, magic, and strength. That's how he fended off the scientists and guards earlier. If he hadn't done that in time like he had, we'd all be screwed and in fucking prison again." I spat the word 'prison' as though it was a bane, which it is.

"Kesshi, you need rest," Kikoku said, coming over to us. She had finished treating Ventus and was about to move onto Roxas when she approached. He gave her a quizzical look, as though questioning who she was. Kikoku noticed this and introduced herself. "I'm Kikoku, the emerald armored leader of Emerald Clan and Shadow's mate. I'm also the main healer here, and my advice is for you to rest. You've had a long, hard time in the lab, and you look about ready to keel over. Now go and rest in Night's nest." She followed the last statement with a stern look that made even the bravest dragon go slightly numb, so he quickly scurried off to our shared room. Once out if sight, the emerald dragon nodded in satisfaction and began to look over the other blonde on the couch. Axel joined her, making sure his mate was okay as well. I didn't blame him, seeing as he had been out cold since early on in the night, and it was now close to dawn. It had been at least six hours, and I was getting slightly worried about my friend and partner.

"He's fine," Kikoku's voice snapped me out of my worrying thoughts, and sent the negative emotion fleeing from my mind. I raised my head to look at her, and she gave me a reassuringly expression back. I smiled at her slightly, and nodded once in thanks. She left to her, Shadow, Sora, Riku, and Soku's shared room to sleep, and the aforementioned group followed her, Sora still carrying Soku while Riku handed Roxel over to Axel. The redhead sat on the end of the couch, holding the toddler-sized young one in his arms, and sighed. I settled myself on the back of the furniture piece, curling up like a cat and sighing as well. We might have a long wait ahead of us. As we waited, I began to think about the young hybrids' growth since birth.

Roxel and Soku had really grown in the time they had been brought into this world, and it had been about a month, a month and a half, somewhere around there. The pair was each now about the size of toddlers, which was unlike normal growth for normal human children, but then again, these two weren't completely human. I just hoped, for everyone's sake, that neither of them would ever want to try and change their destinies. If they tried to become completely human or go into the cities and leave the forest to interact with humans, then we'd have some trouble. But that's future talk. Right now, I'm worried about them. They've grown quickly, showing signs of the rate slowing, but it still concerns me that they'll be full-grown probably by…ten years of age, maybe. It made me a bit nervous, but one thing I was sure of was that they inherited the dragon immortality trait. They healed quickly whenever one of them got a scratch or bump or something, and that showed they had it.

Roxel was certainly a cutie, though. His hair had grown out some, and he now had a small mane of hair that wouldn't neaten up for anything. I had noticed he had started to show markings under his eyes one day, one under each, and when I pointed it out to Roxas and Axel, they realized he had somehow inherited Axel's teardrop-shaped tattoos under his eyes. Axel was almost bursting with pride, because it seemed he had more of himself in his son than Roxas did, but Roxas just laughed it off. He had said that the boy would more likely have more of Roxas's personality, and that shut Axel up. That was when I had roared with laughter, and the blonde had joined in. I wouldn't be surprised if Roxel would start to speak soon…

Soku, on the other hand, was less stubborn about bedtime now than she used to bed, and would go to sleep with just a small fussing. Her hair was longer in the back now, and the silver part of it seemed to go as a layer underneath the brown part, which was the longer part of it. It was also a bit spikier, too. Her eyes seemed to be a bit bigger, but they were still two different colors, one for each parent. She had started to try and speak once, and her first word was actually "Daddy". None of us could figure out which of her parents she meant, but I had an idea that she meant Riku. I thought this because he was her father, and he had gotten Sora pregnant in the first place. Maybe she had an idea of this…? I have no idea. But Sora was pretty much her mom, or at least that's how I see it.

Suddenly, I was snapped out of my musings as Roxas began to stir on the couch. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes, his pupils dilating as his vision adjusted to the scant amount of light in the room. The only light came from the lantern on the end table, and that didn't provide much. I looked at Axel, and he was watching Roxas, his posture very still and tense. I didn't know why, though. I flicked my tail towards the fireplace, and the fire lit up, providing warmth from the night air and some more light. Roxas quickly closed his eyes, trying to refocus his sight again, and I stood up, making a bit of noise as I did so. I didn't want to give the boy a heart attack, for cryin' out loud! He opened his eyes again, and his pupils were constricted, but they soon dilated again to normal. He groaned again, loudly this time, as he tried to sit up. I gently pushed him back down.

"Stay down, Roxas," I ordered. "You wore yourself out earlier with that amount of power you tapped into, and collapsed. We're all back home now, and we saved Ventus and Kesshi. Your brother is sleeping now, but he should wake soon." The blonde nodded in understanding.

"I don't get it, though," he murmured. When I cocked my head sideways, confused, he explained. "How did I tap into that power? It's never happened before, and I don't know how I did it."

"I'm guessing your need and want to protect and save your friends and family was stronger than the instinct to save yourself," I told him. "It happens to me, too, sometimes. It didn't happen for me this time, though, because I was being held against iron. And you know what that does to us."

"I gotcha," the blonde mumbled. He switched his gaze to Axel and Roxel, who were still at the end of the couch, the redhead's posture still tense and still, which Roxas noticed. "Axel? What's wrong?"

"I was worried about you," Axel breathed, and carefully shifted Roxel so that the still-sleeping child wouldn't be disturbed. I held out my arms to show that he could pass the little one to me, and he did, and then quickly embraced Roxas tightly. I held onto Roxel carefully, making sure he wouldn't wake up. While the mated pair kissed, I decided it would be a good time to put Roxel into his crib.

"I'm gonna put Roxel to bed, guys," I whispered to them, and I heard a small grunt of acknowledgement from Axel. I chuckled softly as I made my way to our room, and tucked the little hybrid in, carefully placing the blankets over him so he wouldn't become cold. Upon going back into the living room, I immediately yelped at the sight; Axel had his shirt off, Roxas's pants were off, exposing his lower half, and they were kissing deeply. When I yelped, however, they quickly broke apart, each of them panting and blushing darkly. I just gawked at them, shocked that they would go so far right after Roxas woke, and when they knew the consequences of what might happen. Needless to say, I gave a slight shake of my head, and the pair was too embarrassed to continue. They went to bed, and I made myself comfortable on the couch. Last thoughts as I fell asleep? _'Hopefully they'll have the decency to never do that where they could be caught again…'_

A/N: Woot! Another chapter, finished! Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! I hope this is a good chapter, and gives everyone a little insight on Roxel and Soku's growth progress. I'm thinking about possibly having Roxas and Axel have another kid…You know, give Roxel a little brother. What do you guys think? Read and review, and let me know your thoughts, please!


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: All right, chapter 21 is here, and this is when things will start to get a bit more serious. Hopefully, things won't go too downhill from here…I know something bad is supposed to happen to the main pairing in every fanfic, but it's hard to bring myself to do something! I'll do it, though, just for a proper fanfic…I guess…Here goes the disclaimer, and I'm not gonna list off the names anymore. It gets kinda old. Also, I'm going to being in two more characters I promised **SuperSlash dragon** that I would have in the series.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story and all of the non-hybrid dragons in the story, plus the two OC's Sukai and Seishou.

The Experiment

Chapter 21

I was woken later in the morning by the sound of slight whimpers and growls. My eyelids flickered open, and I first realized that I wasn't in my room. The next thing I realized was that Ventus was waking up. I quickly bolted off the couch and into the bedroom to find Kesshi; he was still fast asleep in my nest. I gently shook him awake, and he growled at me.

"This better be good…" he grumbled.

"Ventus is waking up, and you're the only one who can calm him!" I hissed back, and he quickly got to his feet and ran out to the living room to Ventus. I darted to the bed to wake up Roxas and Axel up as well, and as soon as I mentioned Ven waking up, Roxas was out of thee bed in a flash and quickly slipping into some day clothes. Axel followed a bit more slowly, but with the same sense of urgency. Roxas threw on his normal outfit he used to wear whenever he had been with Ventus when they were a bit younger. Fortunately, it still fit him, and the only changes he had made to the outfit was a hole in the back of the pants for his tail and slits in the shirt and jacket for his wings. He didn't bother with shoes anymore, seeing as we had learned the hard way that they would easily wear down from the fast running. (Imagine his Twilight Town outfit, but with the changes mentioned above) Axel, on the other hand, dressed himself in black skinny jeans and a tight black t-shirt. The pair followed me out to the living room, where Kesshi was trying to calm down his blonde partner.

"Ventus, calm down! You're safe now, I promise!" he assured Ven, and upon hearing the word safe, the blonde began to still, his black and white eyes reverting back to the same deep blue as Roxas's. He relaxed, calming down, but began trying to regain the air back in his lungs, so Kesshi released him and stepped off of his chest. The blonde's eyes widened in panic, though, when he looked around, not knowing where he was. Roxas carefully stepped into his twin's line of vision, and when he saw Roxas, I swear I heard his heart stop for a second. Ven gasped, and suddenly he was on his feet, hugging Roxas tightly while the rest of us watched.

"Roxas…I was so worried about you!" Ven whimpered into his twin's chest. Roxas hugged his brother back, the pair rocking back and forth slightly so as to soothe Ven. After a few minutes of their little reunion, the two separated, but Ven still stood close to his brother.

"Why were you worried about me?" Roxas asked his twin.

"Twin's intuition, I guess you could call it," Ven replied, shrugging. His shoulders sagged as he spoke the next part. "But I also heard the scientists at the lab talking about you and someone called 'Night,' and I was worried that something had happened to you." I stepped forward a bit when he finished.

"I'm Night, and I'm his dragon partner," I told him, and his deep cerulean eyes widened.

"So…I'm not the only one, then?" he asked.

"No, there's more than just you and Roxas with dragon partners," I answered. "Everyone who lives here in the tree houses has a partner. And all of the humans aren't humans anymore; they're human and dragon hybrids. Just like you now are." Ven suddenly realized what I meant when he caught a glimpse of his tail and wings behind him, and he gasped.

"What…happened?" he asked, still shocked.

"Basically, when the scientists at the lab had you and Kesshi, you were both experimented on," I explained. "They copied Kesshi's genetic traits and fused it with your DNA, thus making you a hybrid. They did the same to Roxas and Axel here, as well as Sora, Riku, Demyx, and Zexion. They all used to be just regular humans with dragon partners, and then they were captured and changed. Roxas and I were the first to be captured and changed, and also the first to break free. We rescued the others, and this is where we are today. We think you're both the last ones to be saved." Kesshi gasped when I said that, and I cast him a curious look. "What's wrong?"

"I just remembered something," he whispered. When there was silence, he continued. "My mate, Seishou, and her partner, Sukai, were captured as well. I don't know where, but I know they're both in danger in a lab."

"Damn it," I spat. "I can't take much more of this whole deal of people being captured and experimented on, fuck!" I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. Roxas came over to me and was able to calm me down, but I was still pretty pissed off. This was a serious problem on our hands, this whole experimenting-on-humans-and-dragons-to-make-them-hybrids thing. We needed to end this soon, or else everything in this world would go straight down the gutter to hell. I began to pace as I though to myself, trying to think of something we could do. I knew nobody except for Zexion, Roxas, and me could hack into the lab's mainframe and gather information from it, but maybe Kesshi could…? I decided to ask him.

"Kesshi, do you know how to hack into other computers?" I asked. He looked at me, surprised.

"Yeah, I'm an excellent hacker," he told me. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, there's only three of us here that can, and you're the fourth, and I know we're gonna need all the help we can get. If you can somehow help me to gather information on where Seishou and Sukai are, and all of the information we'll need, that would be great. The only problem is that you'll need to train Ven here in how to control his power and magic, and how to use the as well. And you obviously can't be in two places at once…"

"Well, how about Shadow teaches him?" Axel suggested. "After all, you and Shadow are Kesshi's nephews, and you control all of the elements, so it would just make sense for Shadow to train him while Kesshi helps you."

"I think that'll work, at least until we get all of the necessary information," I agreed. Looking at Kesshi, I asked, "Will that work?"

"Yeah, that'll work fine by me," he replied with a nod. "What kind of info do you need?"

"Just the location of the lab where Seishou and Sukai are being held at, some blueprints, simple stuff like that," I answered. Suddenly, there was a small whimper, and then wailing came from the bedroom as Roxel woke up. Roxas sighed and parted from his brother.

"I'll go get him," he murmured, and went into the room. Ven stared after his twin in confusion.

"Why do you guys have a baby here?" he asked, confused.

"Actually, there are two," I corrected. "And Roxel is…How do I explain this without it coming out weird…Um, you know what, I'll explain when Roxas gets back out here with him." At that moment, Roxas walked back out with Roxel in his arms, and when Ventus caught sight of him, his eyes widened in disbelief. It was obvious the resemblance Roxel had to his parents, and Ven had already seen Axel, so it was just a matter of putting two and two together. Roxel's blue and green eyes watched Ven with interest as Roxas approached with his son in his arms. Axel joined them, and they all sat down on the couch. Ven still stood, though, and he folded his arms as he eyed his brother.

"Roxas…how?" Ven asked. Roxas looked at his twin straight in the eye and started to explain.

"He's Axel and my son," Roxas began. "The scientists at the lab Night and I were at adjusted my genes to make me capable of becoming pregnant. Axel and I are mates, so…you can probably guess from there." Ven's eyes were even wider than before as he stared at his brother in shock.

"So…he's really your son?" he asked. Roxas nodded and received a nuzzle into his neck from Axel as the redhead wrapped his arms around the blonde affectionately. Roxas smiled at him warmly, and shifted Roxel in his arms so he could return the gesture somewhat. I saw Ven's gaze soften as he watched the pair, and I knew that he had accepted the fact that Roxas was pregnant and was capable of it, too. Roxel's dark silver wings and tail showed as he was held, and Ven noticed them.

"So he's got the dragon part, too?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, it's really a cross between Shadow and my genes, so his wings and tail are a mix in color," I said. "Soku is the other one, and she's Sora and Riku's daughter. Sora was also changed to be able to get pregnant, just like Roxas. You'll meet them here soon." Ventus nodded in understanding, and we began to talk a bit about different things. At first, we started by asking Ven and Kesshi how their lives were after Roxas and I had moved out, ending up as to when they were captured. Roxas and I went back to tell our part of the story, beginning from the same time and ending at our capture. Axel even told a bit about his life before his and Shadow's capture, which Roxas seemed to appreciate. My blonde friend was really happy now, and I was, too, seeing as I shared his emotions at times. I looked outside just to see how late it was, and it was almost sunset. The sun was starting to lower below the horizon, and the cool evening air was starting to settle in.

"The others should be back soon," I commented while my friends talked. They looked at, and Ven looked a little nervous at that while Kesshi's face mirrored his partner's feelings. Sure enough, once the sun was halfway sunk below the horizon, I heard the chatter from the group as they approached. Next thing I knew, they were all filing into the living room, but they stayed against the walls. I assumed it was to make the new members feel less nervous, and for that I was grateful. I pushed myself off the wall I had been leaning off for the past few hours and walked over to Ventus and Kesshi, who were close together on the floor by the fireplace, and started to introduce everyone.

"Guys, this is Ventus, but call him Ven," I began, gesturing to the blonde, and then I repeated the action with Kesshi. "And this is Kesshi, Shadow and my uncle." I then started to introduce the others to them, pointing at each one in turn. "That's Sora and Riku." Sora waved while Riku gave a small smile. "They're Soku's parents, as I explained earlier. You'll meet her here later. That's Kikoku and Denkou. Kikoku is Shadow's mate and Denkou is Shadow and my best friend from childhood." Kikoku smiled warmly and Denkou smirked with a slight wave. "Over there is Shadow, my twin brother." Shadow grinned at Ven, who smiled a bit back at him. "That's Demyx and Zexion, and their respective partners, Sky and Rose." Sky nodded with a slight smile and Rose waved enthusiastically with Demyx as Zexion just nodded. "Sky and Rose are mates. Even though Rose is the leader of Ruby Clan and Sky is the leader of Sapphire Clan, they've made it work really well. Kikoku is the leader of Emerald Clan, and Denkou is the leader of Topaz Clan. Shadow is the leader of Diamond Clan, and I'm his deputy and heir to leadership if he were to die." Ven looked a bit overwhelmed, but Kesshi took it all in stride.

He looked at the leaders of the clans and said, "I'm going to assume you all have someone in charge for you while you're here?"

"Of course," Kikoku replied, looking slightly insulted. "Shadow and I have our children watching over our clans. Naito, our son, is watching over Diamond Clan, and our daughters, Kidate and Rinsei, are taking turns in Emerald Clan. I don't know about the others, though." She looked to Denkou, Rose, and Sky for some assistance.

"Well, I have Shito in charge of Topaz Clan, and Kaze, her brother, is deputy with her," Denkou finally said.

"Kayou is in charge while I'm gone," Sky added.

"And Kasai is watching over Ruby Clan," Rose chimed in. Kesshi looked them over, and after a moment he appeared satisfied, so he nodded to himself.

"I'm glad you all took the necessary measures when you left," he told them.

"Well, duh!" Denkou retorted in an exaggerated manner. "What do you take us for, morons?"

"No, I just wanted to know that my brother's sons and friends knew what they were doing when they got the dreams in the first place," Kesshi replied smoothly with a smirk. "And I know you all did the right thing in the end. Especially since you chose to follow the dreams in the first place. They would have gone away in the end, but I'm glad you all chose to listen to them. After all, even with this mess—" He gestured to Ven's wings and tail as an example—"—it's all still worth it. It's nice to know that some humans have changed over the centuries, and instead of all of them hating dragons, there are some who are fascinated by them." (A/N: You know what's funny about that? That's me! I'm fascinated by them!)

"Well, of course there are," Sky agreed calmly. "Otherwise we wouldn't be here, right?" Everyone nodded in agreement at his valid point. Suddenly, Ven's stomach growled, Kesshi's following suit right after, and we all laughed while the poor blonde blushed deeply and Kesshi shook his head in embarrassment.

"Let's go and eat, guys," Rose suggested, and we all nodded, still laughing a bit. Roxas handed Roxel over to Axel and slung an arm over Ven's shoulders, pulling him into an awkward, one-armed hug. Ven returned the gesture, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that Axel's eyes didn't reveal any jealousy. He actually had warmth and happiness in his eyes, and I was quite relieved by that. I wasn't sure if the redhead would become jealous of Ven because Roxas cared so much about his twin, but now that I had seen that, I felt good about this whole situation. Sora had disappeared to get Soku, and soon after, he joined us, carrying the young toddler-sized girl in his arms easily. He had increased strength just like the rest of us, even if it couldn't nearly match Zexion and Rose's, so he carried the girl with ease. Ven's jaw almost hit the floor when he saw her, though. She looked so much like Sora and Riku that it was almost crazy. He noticed her green and gold wings and tail, and he calmed down a bit, knowing she was just like the rest of the hybrids, including himself.

We ate dinner that night in a good mood, but I did notice Kesshi looked slightly perturbed with something, so I decided to talk to him about it after dinner. Once everyone had gone to their respective rooms in their own tree houses, I pulled him aside as Ven got comfortable on the couch. He'd have to sleep there until I finished a new tree house with Shadow and Kesshi's help.

"Kesshi, I know something's up," I started, and he gave me a startled look. "And don't lie to me. What's wrong?"

"…I'm just…worried about Seishou," he murmured. "She's my mate, and I know she's in danger, so I want to rescue her, but we need to find out where she is first."

"Well, actually, we should be able to help her and Sukai hopefully in about two weeks," I told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me, surprised. "We just need to train Ven, get the information we need, and we'll be ready soon enough." His eyes started to shimmer with unshed tears, and he embraced me tightly.

"Thank you, Night," he whispered as I returned the embrace. He pulled back after a second. "I love her so much, and I can't stand to think that she's in trouble or hurting. I'm sure you know how it feels."

"…I've never had a mate before," I admitted quietly, lowering my head. "But I get what you're saying. I feel that way about Roxas, but it's more of a protective nature."

"I'm sorry, Night. I had no idea," he mumbled. "Well, I'm sure you'll find someone someday." He clapped a hand on my shoulder and walked over to the couch, starting to get comfortable on the pelts that were piled up by it for him to sleep on. "Good night, Night. Sleep well," he murmured, and then closed his eyes and fell asleep. I slowly walked into the bedroom, hanging my head and dragging my tail slightly, and then made my way to my nest. I sighed, feeling miserable as I curled up, and thought about all of the females I had met in my life, and the fact that they never appealed to me like that. I felt more of a kinship towards them, never a feeling of love. Hopefully that would change soon for me. That is, if I ever go back to the Dragon Realms. Soon after that thought, I fell asleep.

A/N: Whew! Sorry about that, folks! I've been having a bit of a writer's block lately, and I've been trying to work on Night's View chapter 8 and chapter 2 of Conquer The Darkness. Now this one's up, and I can start on the other stories again! Yippee! Also, I'll do my best to have the next chapter up by hopefully at the very latest Sunday. Okay, please read & review, peoples! Reviews make me more motivated to write faster! Thanks!


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